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Subject:Re: Contracting question From:BurkBrick -at- AOL -dot- COM Date:Mon, 6 Jun 1994 12:47:13 EDT
>"The Tech Writing Game" suggests that contractors have the
>company they are working for sign a letter of agreement (in
>addition to the company's own contract). Is this usual?
I'm starting to do this - I had my lawyer write up a contract (letter of
agreement, Statement of Intentions, whatever you want to call it). I had him
do it two-sided - there are items that protect both of us. For example, I
want protection against liability, so there's a clause that states that they
are responsible for technical review. They probably want any equipment that
I've borrowed back, so there's a clause that says I am responsible for
returning any materials owned by the company.
I did this partly because most company's standard agreements don't really
cover technical writers. The most glaring example is non-disclosure
agreements - they tend to talk about patents and designs, which aren't a
concern, but copyright and telling competitors about the design are a
concern. My lawyer came up with something that's more relevant to the type of
work I do.
