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Official Q&A: VEX V5 Robotics Competition 2025-2026: Push Back
2843: Ownership of Ideas when Students Move Teams G4/G5
Based on Q and A 2812, students cannot directly copy mechanisms that another team built. However, what happens to the “ownership” of the idea if a team splits legally per rule G5. Here is the following hypothetical scenario.
Amy and Bob are both on team 123A early on in the season. Together, they work together to develop the “Schrödinger” mech. Partway through the season, Bob leaves 123A to join team 123B for a legal reason described in rule G5A. Both Amy and Bob have an equal and complete understanding of the “Schrödinger” mech as per rule G5Aiii. In order to document their ideas, both teams will put all of their evidence in a physical digital engineering notebook. It should be assumed for this Q and A that the only documentation these teams have is located in their notebook. Which of the following scenarios, if any, would constitute a G4 violation?
Bob (on team 123B) builds an identical copy of the “Schrödinger” mech. Bob does this using pictures/cad drawings he took/made of the “Schrödinger” mech while still on team 123A. Both team 123A and 123B now have identical mechanisms on their robot.
a. Is this a G4 violation for either team?
b. If Bob were to recreate the “Schrödinger” mech from pictures/cad drawings that Amy took/made would this affect the legality
c. Does the answer to question B change depending on whether or not Amy or Bob wrote the entries/provided the documentation?
d. If scenario A is legal, does Bob need to provide any additional documentation in 123B’s notebook about the documentation and development of the “Schrödinger” mech or is the documentation in team 123A’s notebook sufficient?
e. If team answer to part D is that Bob does not need additional documentation of the “Schrödinger” mech, what happens if 123A forgets to bring their notebook to a competition and it is not present?
f. If the answer to part A is that this is not a G4 violation, but the answer to part C is that Bob does need additional documentation in 123B’s notebook, could 123A now potentially face a G4 violation if 123A doesn’t have complete documentation of the “schrödinger mech” but 123B does?
g. Do any of the above answers change if the number of students involved change? Such as if 123A originally had Amy, Bob, and Bill and both Bob and Bill left to make a new team.
Thank you for your time answering these detailed questions. Additionally, please let me know if you need any further clarification on any of the scenarios.
Hi, Evan. Thanks for this question and your scenarios.
The work done by a Team belongs to the Team, and the Team retains ownership of the work if one or some of its Students leave to join or form a new Team in the current season. If student B leaves the Team and wants to reproduce any of the work done by that team, it's just the same as getting inspiration from any other source. It is up to student B to prove that they were inspired by the original team's work but iterated/revised it to make it their own. Copying the old team's work directly would be plagiarism / hole counting and a <G4> violation.
However, if an entire Team leaves an organization (e.g., due to differences of opinion, relocation, etc.) and reforms with the same set of Students in a different organization, ownership of the ideas would remain with that group of Students.
To address your specific scenarios/questions:
- a & b: This would be a Violation for Bob's Team, 123B, if the Students are unable to demonstrate that they iterated/revised Team 123A's design to make it their own.
- c: This guidance remains the same regardless of which student on 123A documented the design.
- d, e, & f: N/A
- g: If any Student from the "original" Team remains on that Team, they have ownership of the Team's ideas. Rule <G4> and Clause A3 of rule <G5> apply, and the remaining Student must ensure that their skills match the level of the Robot and code.