[BITList] The humiliating experience that sparked Just A Minute -Telegraph

[HUGH]

Mike,

Like Messiter, I was awakened on afternoon from a dwam by Mr Crawford, our 
English and History teacher at Port Glasgow High School.  I had been gazing 
up at the hills behind the school, lost in reverie.  However, though I'd 
been oblivious to what was going on around me, I was able to satisfy Mr 
Crawford that I'd been wide awake and listening to him.  Mr Crawford was not 
easy to hoodwink.

The mention of the BBC and their claim to the rights to Messiter's creation 
interested me.  A toolmaker in Kincaids went into business for himself, and 
eventually developed a tapping tool, ie, a spring loaded sort of drill chuck 
that would take a tap and not break the tap when it bottomed. Kincaid sued 
for the rights, claiming he had developed the idea while with them.  From 
memory, they lost.  When I joined Babcock and Wilcox in Renfrew for the 
first of my two spells with them, before I put pencil to paper I was 
required to attend a meeting with (I suppose) a lawyer of sorts.  He 
produced a document for my signature, which he witnessed. This gave Babcock 
the rights to my drawings, as opposed to the paper on which they were drawn 
(supplied by them).  No other firm ever did that. Eventually, with other 
firms, I gave up trying to convince colleagues that the firm didn't 
necessarily own the rights to their output, it being something of a 
gentleman's agreement that nobody ever questioned.  A few years ago I was 
bothered by letters from lawyers demanding the return of material I had 
produced that their clients claimed were their intellectual property. 
Unlike the lawyers (who were basically jumped up estate agents), I know the 
difference between intellectual property (vague and troublesome, and 
inapplicable to the matter) and copyright (clear cut, and applicable). 
Eventually I told them politely to eff off, and they did, protesting that 
their clients had no issue with me.  Strange people.

Hugh.