Exam 14: Contract Management

The _____ clause of a contract specifies conditions regarding who own any IP rights that comes out of the agreement, and who owns what IP going into the agreement.

Perhaps the simplest method of resolving a contractual disagreement involves straightforward, face-to-face negotiation between the two parties involved.

In construction contracts, penalty clauses are technically called "liquidated damages clauses;" if they are labeled "penalty" clauses, there is a long line of cases that say they are not enforceable.

A/An _____ is nonbinding on either the buyer or the supplier and typically provides discounts to corporate buyers based on total volume for the corporation as a whole, not for any subunits individually.

Agreeing to a short-term contract frequently allows the buyer to have access to more detailed cost and price information from the supplier in exchange for the flexible contract term.

The longer the term of the purchase agreement, the less likely firm-fixed price contracts will be acceptable to the supplier.

A buyer must focus intently on determining an acceptable initial price because over the course of the long-term contract the price adjustment mechanism will use the initial price as the base for future adjustments.

Long-term contracts can help the buyer to gain exclusive access to proprietary supplier technology, and blocking competitor access can result in a short-term competitive advantage.

Fixed price contracts are the most complex and difficult for purchasing to manage because there is a need for extensive auditing or additional input from the purchasing side.