I’m kind of at a crossroads with this issue right now. Truth be told, a great deal of the actual “design work” I’ve done has been done in preparation for exporting the manufacturing overseas. As a result of that, I don’t feel like I’ve really retained any “authorship” of the work I’ve done. Much of it has been drafting, specs for materials, manufacturing process, etc. I DO feel however that thanks to the communication “barrier” with working with companies overseas, much of the work I have done to prepare specs has a sort of “narrative” and design process orientated that shows evident thought process.
Thus far, I’ve been dodging the issue to a degree by rationalizing that it’s okay to show someone an instruction sheet that gives you a good impression of how the product is designed and functions, because if I was a consumer I could buy it off the shelf and have access to the same knowledge.
Where I start to wonder about the issue ethically, is can I show someone parts of the actual process and consider an NDA and communicating the confidentiality of what I’m showing to be “enough”? Is that reasonable if I’m not showing these things to a competitor or the same industry?