A commissioned market research report is the asset behind an FDI company’s multi-million-dollar investment decision. Yet after delivery, many companies are surprised when the same consultancy sells a near-identical report to a competitor, or refuses to let the company share the report with its parent and co-investors.
Where rights in a research report sit
- The report is a written work — Article 14 of the IP Law: the analysis, commentary and expression in a report are protected written works; the authors are the consultancy’s analysts.
- Market facts belong to nobody — statistics, prices and raw company data are unprotected facts; a consultancy cannot bar reuse of the facts, but can bar verbatim copying of its analysis if the contract reserves rights.
- Consulting contract defaults — Article 39: the commissioning party owns the economic rights unless otherwise agreed; however many international consulting terms grant only an ‘internal use licence’ — read them instead of assuming a buy-out.
- Intra-group sharing is a separate right — sending the report to a parent company, shareholders or lenders is distribution and reproduction beyond ordinary internal use, and should be expressly permitted.
Report clauses to fix when engaging consultants
- Choose the rights model up front: full buy-out of economic rights, or a broad licence covering intra-group sharing and transaction due-diligence disclosure.
- Bar the consultancy from reselling the custom report to competitors for a defined period; distinguish the custom report from their syndicated industry reports.
- Provide that the company may quote and present research findings in internal documents and fundraising materials without case-by-case permission.
A research report’s value lies in the decision it enables — and in that decision staying private. A consulting contract that fixes report rights at the start lets an FDI company use the report freely within its group while stopping the consultant from turning its research into a product for rivals.
Frequently asked questions
We commissioned a market research report — who owns it?
The analysis is the consultancy’s work; economic rights belong to the company under Article 39 of the IP Law unless the contract grants only an internal-use licence.
The consultancy resold our report to a competitor — what can we do?
If the contract bars resale of the custom report or assigned the rights, demand cessation and damages; contractual silence makes enforcement far harder.
What should the contract say?
The rights model (buy-out or broad licence), intra-group sharing rights, a no-resale-to-competitors period, and freedom to quote findings internally.
This article has been quality-reviewed by the FLAW AI Legal Council
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