I have zero doubt the lawyers (probably contractors) involved with writing up the contracts aren't also in the pockets of the "competing" corporations.

Even if it wasn't defined in the contract, the competitors knew of each others involvement and made no effort to address a very obvious engineering necessity (probably brpught up by engineers at both companies) — management (at the very least) let this happen on purpose, as a strategic decision.

It's all part of the hyper efficiency of privatizing profits and regulatory capture.