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DevCo Agreement

Document type: Legal summary
Doc ID: LEGAL-DEVCO-AGREEMENT
Status: Final v0.1
Release date: December 21, 2025
Author: Nicolas Turcotte, Founder
Source repo: dcorps-docs-public (docs/legal/DEVCO_AGREEMENT.md)
Last updated: 2025-12-28

Scope: Public summary of the intended relationship between DevCo and the dCorps ecosystem.

Status note: This is not an executed contract and does not constitute legal advice. The foundation is not incorporated yet, and DevCo incorporation is pending.

1. Roles

  • Development corporation (DevCo): engineering, integrations, and delivery of protocol and tooling work. Planned DevCo legal entity (design intention): dCorps Development Ltd. (intended jurisdiction: British Virgin Islands (BVI); incorporation pending).
  • Foundation (planned; not yet incorporated): intended steward of public goods, standards, grants, and registry operations.
  • Research company (ResCo) (planned; incorporation pending): adoption-focused research organization. Planned ResCo legal entity (design intention): dCorps Research LLC (intended jurisdiction: Wyoming (USA); incorporation pending) (see ResCo Agreement).

2. Funding and agreements

  • The foundation may fund DevCo through milestone-based grants or service agreements.
  • The foundation may fund ResCo for adoption research, module proposals, and integration work under similarly disclosed and scoped agreements.
  • Funding is subject to governance oversight and public reporting.

3. IP and neutrality

  • Protocol standards and core specifications remain public and neutral.
  • The foundation may sponsor multiple providers to reduce single-vendor risk and avoid de facto exclusivity.

Design intention (IP stewardship transition):

  • In early phases, protocol and brand IP may be held by the founder and/or DevCo once incorporated.
  • Once the foundation is incorporated and operationally ready, stewardship is intended to migrate to the foundation via a documented arrangement (assignment and/or licensing as appropriate).
  • Any IP transition should be publicly disclosed with clear scope, so observers do not need to infer ownership from narrative docs.

4. Conflict management

  • Material conflicts must be disclosed by decision makers.
  • Recusal is required for conflicts related to grants or registry decisions.

5. Change control

Any material change to this relationship must be documented in governance proposals and reflected in updates to this document.