Advising an Agricultural Technology Business: A Practitioner's Guide to Farm Data Rights, Equipment Interfaces, Agronomic Models, and Grower Agreements
By Casey Scott McKay ·
This guide takes a practitioner through an agricultural technology engagement in the order the work has to happen, and it begins by setting aside the question the client will ask. Data ownership settles nothing, because facts about a field are not property; what settles everything is a set of five contract terms that almost nobody reads. The guide works through those terms, then through the model and calibration enumeration that protects the supplier's real asset, the university collaboration agreements that sit behind most agronomic science, the trial data provenance that supports every product claim, and the equipment and imagery licences that constrain what a platform may build. Later steps cover repair access positions, cooperative and collective negotiation, and the diligence questions an acquisition will ask. Each step ends with the artefact it produces.
IP and Technology > Information Technology | Guide | Published 27 October 2023 - Updated 15 April 2025 | Casey Scott McKay - marksy.us
Summary. This guide works through an agricultural technology engagement in the order the work has to happen, beginning by setting aside the question the client will ask. Data ownership settles nothing, because facts about a field are not property; what settles everything is five contract terms almost nobody reads. The guide covers those terms, the model and calibration enumeration that protects the supplier's real asset, the university collaboration agreements behind most agronomic science, the trial data provenance supporting every product claim, and the equipment and imagery licences constraining what a platform may build.
Keywords: agtech advice · five terms · licence scope · aggregation definitions · export specification · change of control · model enumeration · calibration secrecy · university collaboration terms · trial data provenance · equipment interfaces · repair access · imagery licences · carbon credit data · cooperative negotiation
This is premium Marksy content — the full document is available to subscribers.