'Without Prejudice'

Yes, I've been thinking about this too. There are some problems with two of the terms we use here: Joint Venture and Partner both have legal definitions!

A 'Joint Venture' implies that there is some equity ownership between the parties concerned- I worked in one a joint venture a while back - between *BIG OIL CO* and the government of Nigeria. Both had contributed capital, and both owned equity - and the whole thing has a very seriously negotiated legal and governance framework.

Now that's nothing like what we're doing here, which is more like mutual back-scratching in comparison.

The other problem word, 'Partner' implies 'joint and several liability' - meaning we would be responsible for each other's liabilities and losses. Put these two terms together, and we've got a big 'ouch'!

So we've had to tap dance around the issue in our 'JV Partner' terms and conditions. There's a segment that stipulates that it's an affiliate agreement regardless of the use of the JV Partner terminology.

But the term 'affiliate' is a much more open thing - and we can define it how we want, in any given context. So we can stipulate, if we wish, that it's about mutual contribution of bonuses. Or we can say that it's about following through on the offer of co-promotion. Or we can say that it's about being reliable in our promotional activities. Or including a second tier commission for affilaite recruitment. Or being involved in product/service development. Or any combination of the preceding /other factors.

So we tend to use the terms pretty interchangeably; we expect our affilaites (sorry to use that term here) to behave professionally, and we support them all the way to the hilt to make it as easy as possible for them to make real money from our offering - and we make sure the products and services are of premium quality...and we make sure that our marketing 'freebies' are unique and valuable. And we undertake to provide 'boot camp' training for newbie affiliates so that they become JV Partners...this has become something of a manifesto so I'll stop.

By the way, get real legal advice. You may have noticed the top line of this posting says 'without prejudice' - in other words this posting is for discussion only, and shouldn't be construed as legal advice! Marketing on-line is growing like topsy and our cute walled-garden won't stand up to scrutiny.