New Routemaster design intellectual property and licensing after 1,000 vehicles purchased

The request was successful.

Dear Transport for London,

I have questions in regards to the intellectual property of the New Routemaster design.

Since there are 1,000 New Routemaster buses in London service which enabled TfL to own the design rights of the New Routemaster bus.

Can you provide information and documents on the design rights, design licensing and intellectual property of the New Routemaster?

Can you explain about the meaning of NRM design features?

Does Alexander Dennis have a licence to manufacture buses using the NRM design features?

Does any other company use a licence and/or pay royalties to use the NRM design on their products?

Under your previous administration with Mayor Boris Johnson. He presented a challenge to bus manufacturers to develop and build spin-off buses using the DNA from the New Routemaster bus. Can you provide me documents and more information in relation to it please?

References to my questions

“TfL has applied to the Intellectual Property Office for Registered Design Protection for the new exterior of the New Bus for London shown today." (17 May 2010)

https://tfl.gov.uk/info-for/media/press-...

Transport for London Investment Decision Making - the New Routemaster Bus
New Routemaster Bus, item 6.

"TfL has a contract with Wrightbus to build the first 1,000 buses to the same specification, but once this milestone is achieved, TfL is free to contract other bus manufacturers to build buses incorporating the NRM’s design features."

Budget and Performance Committee – 8 March 2016
Transcript of Agenda Item 6

Leon Daniels (Managing Director - Surface Transport, Transport for London): "The principal thing is that it would allow us to take features of the design to other manufacturers and have them build it without any difficulty with Wrights. I do not want to overstate the intellectual property situation. There is more than one bit of intellectual property. When we get to 1,000, all of the issues relating to intellectual property fall away."

Leon Daniels (Managing Director - Surface Transport, Transport for London): "The Mayor had all the bus manufacturers in. It was ADL and Wrights who have been the first to come to the party. I am not surprised by that because they are the principal suppliers of buses in the London market. They are the principal suppliers in the UK market. We have yet to see what other manufacturers may well bring forward. They will be making some decisions about the likely volumes and so on."

https://www.london.gov.uk/moderngov/mgAi...

Yours faithfully
Larry Bryant

FOI, Transport for London

Dear Mr Bryant

TfL Ref: 2030-1920

Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 2 October 2019. I am sorry for not getting back to you sooner.

Your request will be processed in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy.

A response will be sent to you by 30 October 2019. We publish a substantial range of information on our website on subjects including operational performance, contracts, expenditure, journey data, governance and our financial performance. This includes data which is frequently asked for in FOI requests or other public queries. Please check http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/transpar... to see if this helps you.

We will publish anonymised versions of requests and responses on the www.tfl.gov.uk website. We will not publish your name and we will send a copy of the response to you before it is published on our website.

In the meantime, if you would like to discuss this matter further, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Yours sincerely

Jasmine Howard
FOI Case Officer
Information Governance
Transport For London

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FOI, Transport for London

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Bryant

TfL Ref: 2030-1920

Thank you for your email received by us on 8 October 2019.

Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act and our information access policy.

Because we are in the process of finalising our response, we have not been able to resolve your request within the statutory 20 working day.

We intend to provide you with a full response as soon as possible. Please accept my apologies for this delay.

In the meantime, if you have any queries relating to your request, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal.

Yours sincerely

Jasmine Howard
FOI Case Officer
Information Governance
Transport For London

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Dear TfL

I have queries about my delayed Freedom of Information request in regards to the New Routemaster design intellectual property and licensing.

Reference number is: TfL Ref: 2030-1920

Do you know how long till the FOI request is finalised and completed?

Can you explain about the delay to my FOI request?

Kind Regards
Larry Bryant

FOI, Transport for London

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Bryant

 

TfL Ref: 2030-1920

 

Thank you for your request received by us on 2 October 2019 asking for
information about New Routemaster (NRM) buses. Please accept my apologies
for the delay in responding.

 

Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of
the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy. I can
confirm that we hold some of the information you require. You asked for
the following:

 

Can you provide information and documents on the design rights, design
licensing and intellectual property of the New Routemaster?

 

I can advise that TfL owns the intellectual property rights to the unique
design features of the NRM. For further details, please see the contracts
for the New Bus for London published in response to Freedom of Information
requests via the following link to our website:
[1]https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/publication...

 

In accordance with section 21 of the FOI Act, we are not obliged to supply
you with a copy of the requested information as it is already accessible
to you elsewhere.

 

Can you explain about the meaning of NRM design features?

 

At the time, this included features such as the arched back with rear
sweep window and accompanying second staircase, in addition to an entirely
low floor aisle from front to back and the interior retro inspired colour
scheme.

 

Does Alexander Dennis have a licence to manufacture buses using the NRM
design features?

 

No.

 

Does any other company use a licence and/or pay royalties to use the NRM
design on their products?

 

No, other than TfL, no other contracting authority has purchased a NRM.

 

Under your previous administration with Mayor Boris Johnson. He presented
a challenge to bus manufacturers to develop and build spin-off buses using
the DNA from the New Routemaster bus. Can you provide me documents and
more information in relation to it please?

 

TfL does not hold any documents as we believe this was a verbal challenge
but we can confirm the subject was discussed at the GLA Budget and
Performance Committee and that some bodywork curved features of the New
Routemaster did start to appear on later vehicles from manufacturers
Wrightbus and Alexander Dennis.

 

However, following your separate FOI request, the GLA has also provided
you with the information they hold in response to this, which is published
on their website at:
[2]https://www.london.gov.uk/about-us/gover...

 

In accordance with section 21 of the FOI Act, we are not obliged to supply
you with a copy of the requested information as it is already accessible
to you elsewhere.

 

If this is not the information you are looking for, or if you are unable
to access it for any reason, please do not hesitate to contact me.

 

Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to
appeal as well as information on copyright and what to do if you would
like to re-use any of the information we have disclosed.

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

Jasmine Howard

FOI Case Officer

Information Governance

Transport For London

 

show quoted sections

FOI, Transport for London

Dear Mr Bryant

 

TfL Ref: 2030-1920

 

Thank you for your request received by us on 2 October 2019 asking for
information about New Routemaster (NRM) buses. Please accept my apologies
for the delay in responding.

 

Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of
the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy. I can
confirm that we hold some of the information you require. You asked for
the following:

 

Can you provide information and documents on the design rights, design
licensing and intellectual property of the New Routemaster?

 

I can advise that TfL owns the intellectual property rights to the unique
design features of the NRM. For further details, please see the contracts
for the New Bus for London published in response to Freedom of Information
requests via the following link to our website:
[1]https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/publication...

 

In accordance with section 21 of the FOI Act, we are not obliged to supply
you with a copy of the requested information as it is already accessible
to you elsewhere.

 

Can you explain about the meaning of NRM design features?

 

At the time, this included features such as the arched back with rear
sweep window and accompanying second staircase, in addition to an entirely
low floor aisle from front to back and the interior retro inspired colour
scheme.

 

Does Alexander Dennis have a licence to manufacture buses using the NRM
design features?

 

No.

 

Does any other company use a licence and/or pay royalties to use the NRM
design on their products?

 

No, other than TfL, no other contracting authority has purchased a NRM.

 

Under your previous administration with Mayor Boris Johnson. He presented
a challenge to bus manufacturers to develop and build spin-off buses using
the DNA from the New Routemaster bus. Can you provide me documents and
more information in relation to it please?

 

TfL does not hold any documents as we believe this was a verbal challenge
but we can confirm the subject was discussed at the GLA Budget and
Performance Committee and that some bodywork curved features of the New
Routemaster did start to appear on later vehicles from manufacturers
Wrightbus and Alexander Dennis.

 

However, following your separate FOI request, the GLA has also provided
you with the information they hold in response to this, which is published
on their website at:
[2]https://www.london.gov.uk/about-us/gover...

 

In accordance with section 21 of the FOI Act, we are not obliged to supply
you with a copy of the requested information as it is already accessible
to you elsewhere.

 

If this is not the information you are looking for, or if you are unable
to access it for any reason, please do not hesitate to contact me.

 

Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to
appeal as well as information on copyright and what to do if you would
like to re-use any of the information we have disclosed.

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

Jasmine Howard

FOI Case Officer

Information Governance

Transport For London

 

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