Who owns the CAD files a customer sends with an RFQ?

What rights does a shop get when it receives RFQ files?#

A shop that receives RFQ files usually gets a limited permission to use them for one purpose: deciding whether to bid and preparing a quote. The customer keeps ownership of the part design, the model and the drawing, and possession of the files does not change that.

Where the RFQ comes with an NDA or written terms, those terms set the limits, often including confidentiality, use only for the quotation, and return or destruction on request. Where nothing is signed, a limited permission may be implied from the request itself, and confidentiality markings on the drawing still matter.

Trade secret law is one reason customers care about how shops handle files. Under the federal trade secret definition in 18 U.S.C. 1839(3), information qualifies as a trade secret only if its owner has taken reasonable measures to keep it secret, so customers tend to insist that suppliers restrict access and use.

What a shop may keep versus what stays the customer's#

The dividing line is between the customer's design and the shop's own work. The table shows the usual starting point; the actual answer comes from the NDA, RFQ terms, purchase order terms and any supply agreement.

Which clauses change the answer?#

The clauses that change the answer are usually in three places: the NDA, the RFQ or portal terms, and the purchase order terms that apply if the shop wins. Read them together, because a broad assignment in the purchase order can reach items the RFQ terms never mentioned.

• 1Confidentiality scope: what counts as confidential and whether markings are required.
• 2Use restriction: language such as solely for the purpose of preparing a quotation.
• 3Return or destruction: whether files must be deleted when the RFQ closes or on request.
• 4Residuals: whether general know-how retained in memory may be used freely.
• 5IP assignment: whether programs, fixtures, tooling designs or inspection plans pass to the customer.
• 6AI and data use: whether the customer forbids uploading files to outside tools or using them for training.
• 7Export control notices: whether the drawing is marked as controlled technical data.

Does winning the job change who owns what?#

Winning the job adds the purchase order and any supply agreement to the picture, and those often say more about ownership than the RFQ did. Many customer terms assign to the customer the tooling, fixtures or documentation paid for under the order, while leaving the shop's general methods alone.

Copyright rules add a wrinkle for items the shop creates, such as CAM programs. As the Copyright Office describes it, work by an outside supplier counts as made for hire only when it falls in a short list of statutory categories and both sides signed a written agreement saying so; otherwise, ownership generally moves only by written assignment. Whether that applies to a given program or document is a question for counsel.

What happens to files from quotes you lost?#

Files from lost quotes carry the same obligations as files from won ones, and sometimes stricter ones, because the shop has no ongoing purpose for keeping them. Follow any return or destruction terms, and keep only the shop's own quote record without the customer's model.

Lost-quote files are where shops most often slip. They sit in an estimating folder or a quoting portal for years, and a later project, such as training an AI quoting tool on past RFQs, can sweep them in without anyone checking the terms.

Illustrative: a fabrication shop sorts its RFQ archive#

Illustrative: a fictional sheet metal and fabrication shop receives a steady flow of RFQs with STEP files and PDFs through email and a quoting portal. The owner is evaluating an AI quoting tool and also asks whether the shop's quote history could be licensed.

Counsel reviews the NDAs and terms of the shop's largest customers. Some allow internal use of files for the shop's own quoting; others limit use strictly to each quotation and require deletion. The shop decides that the AI tool will train only on its own quote records and routings, with geometry features used only from customers whose terms allow it.

For licensing, the shop scopes a package of quotes, routings, estimated and actual hours and win or loss outcomes, with customer names replaced and no customer models or drawings included. It also changes RFQ intake so each file is tagged with the customer, the governing terms and any export control marking.

How to handle RFQ files day to day#

Handling RFQ files well is mostly about knowing which terms govern each file. A few habits make that easy to show to a customer, an auditor or a buyer of the business.

How SourceX treats customer-supplied files#

SourceX excludes customer-owned designs from supplier packages. In the Rights step of the SourceX five-step transaction, the supplier's records are sorted into what the company created for itself, such as quotes, routings, job costing and quality decisions, and what belongs to customers. Export-controlled work is excluded entirely.

The SourceX Evidence Packet records licensing rights and permitted use for each package, so the supplier and the buyer can see why every record type was included and that the supplier approved its release.