On 11/5/2014 2:29 PM, Grimmund wrote:

> If the *shipyard* offers a standard design for 100cr, rock
> on.  If someone wants a copy of YOUR custom design, they
> have to negotiate that with YOU, or possibly your
> architect, although I would expect that sort of design work
> would be covered by some sort of proprietary arrangement,
> or a substantial reduction of the fee if the architect
> intends to continue selling it to other customers.

It's that "substantial reduction of fee" that might come into
play here. Yes, *YOU* commissioned the design and yes, *YOU*
own it, but you might be able to renounce your ownership in
favor of the shipyard/architect for a substantial reduction of
the design fee. The shipyard, let's say, now owns the design
and can charge a small fee for future ships of this "standard"
design to cover their costs of acquiring that design.

This would only work if the shipyard saw a market for more
ships of that design and negotiated a deal with you, of course.

I could envision a PC with mustering out benefits of ship
shares proposing a background something like this:

When Jack had been with the Merchant Service for a few years,
he knew that he wanted to make a lifetime career out if it. He
started making note of what designs, what features, what
brands of components worked best and when he made a minor
fortune on one run, commissioned a design of a 360 dton ship
to be completed by an Ship's Architect. It was several more
years before Jack mustered out, but when he knew he was a year
away from retiring, and going out on his own, he had the
design he wanted built and enough money to make a down payment
on *his* ship. He contracted with a shipyard to begin work.
When he finally got the gold watch from the line, he walked
across the port and took possession of "Follow Me Home"...his
ship, well his and the bank's.

Eris