181–190 of 327 posts
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I wholeheartedly agree with your comment. The core is that OP created something of value, in his own time. So there should be a value exchange of some sort.
Depends entirely on the employment agreement. Many will automatically assign ownership of any code written to the employer.
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> In many (most) cases any IP you create does belong to them. Why do Americans consider themselves free?
This comment is unnecessarily antagonistic. The government here doesn't intrude as much on private employment contracts as in Europe. Maybe as a result the salaries in the US are much higher and unemployment rate over time also much lower.
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But this is the obvious answer. OP didn't need you to tell him to get a lawyer. If he had that kind of money he'd be talking to a lawyer not us. I mean I know you meant well and I know I probably sound like a negative jerk but yeah of course it's a legal issue and he should talk to a lawyer. It's like if someone has a stomach ache and they asked online what it might be and someone tells them they should see a doctor.…
I disagree. Learning the ins and outs of the law and of IP negotiations - a very specialized and cut-throat field - in a few days or maybe weeks is out of the question. If he can't talk to a lawyer, he's going to lose. Period. Maybe very badly. After having already screwed up, now is not the time to half-ass it. You're not a terrible person but you've given absolutely terrible advice.
> You're not a terrible person but you've given absolutely terrible advice
You didn't read my advice correctly and I place zero value in your opinion about me being a good person or not especially considering you thought you had enough information to even bring up the topic based on one short internet comment.
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This comment is unnecessarily antagonistic. The government here doesn't intrude as much on private employment contracts as in Europe. Maybe as a result the salaries in the US are much higher and unemployment rate over time also much lower.
and mortality is increasing again. geez, what a great country to live in!
Surprised that no one has mentioned that you should first review the employment doc you signed. In many (most) cases any IP you create does belong to them. Getting a lawyer involved may just turn in to an expensive and antagonistic experience that winds up with you simply ending up....with them owning the IP. One thing to consider- spin off your side project and try to get your employer as your first customer or as t…
I've heard this many times before but what are the limits to this? Say you work at software company x and on the weekends at home you are coding a project completely unrelated to work, a dating app, a mobile game, whatever. How can any contract be all encompassing as to legally allow that?
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Always always always talk to a lawyer. If your dog walker (at the peak of their career) friend was like “I need a website” you wouldn’t be like “learn JavaScript” you would say find a programmer. If I had 10 dollars for every time I had to spend weeks convincing an engineer friend to talk to an attorney and then when they finally did it got dealt with in 30 minutes... Lawyers are just “full stack law architects” do y…
I find kneejerk advice to consult lawyers for anything that concerns the law frustrating for two reasons: 1. It never seems to be accompanied with advice on how to find the appropriate kind of lawyer. 2. It almost always seems to ignore the fact that lawyers are expensive. Sure, there are times when that cost is warranted, but I don't think it is right to ignore it. For example, in this case, it is probably only wort…
If you screw up your legal diy the consequences are much much worse, and often unfixable.
I personally believe that going to a lawyer at this stage is 1) expensive and 2) unnecessarily confrontational. I understand the argument about understanding your legal options, but at the point where you start to rely on the law, you're entering a contentious negotiation which can be unpleasant and expensive for everyone.
So I'd just say "Hey, Employer, I've put in a lot of my personal time into this project. So I think it's fair that if you want it that I should be recognized in a concrete tangible way since clearly you want it because it adds more value to the business."
And I think depending on the kind of company you work for, I'd ask for additional equity in the company (since you'd be making the company more valuable) plus additional cash (because you were working on this project night-and-day) and some sort of recognition would all be reasonable asks.
Surprised that no one has mentioned that you should first review the employment doc you signed. In many (most) cases any IP you create does belong to them. Getting a lawyer involved may just turn in to an expensive and antagonistic experience that winds up with you simply ending up....with them owning the IP. One thing to consider- spin off your side project and try to get your employer as your first customer or as t…
> In many (most) cases any IP you create does belong to them. Why do Americans consider themselves free?
Surprised that no one has mentioned that you should first review the employment doc you signed. In many (most) cases any IP you create does belong to them. Getting a lawyer involved may just turn in to an expensive and antagonistic experience that winds up with you simply ending up....with them owning the IP. One thing to consider- spin off your side project and try to get your employer as your first customer or as t…
> In many (most) cases any IP you create does belong to them I've heard this many times before but what are the limits to this? Say you work at software company x and on the weekends at home you are coding a project completely unrelated to work, a dating app, a mobile game, whatever. How can any contract be all encompassing as to legally allow that?
You are now in a negotiation, and so "what can I ask for" is largely determined by "what is the BATNA,"[1] i.e. what happens if you and your company fail to reach a mutually acceptable compromise and start acting purely in your own respective self-interests.
This will partly come down to legal issues (can the company take over the IP from you), but for an open source company, I would speculate that reputational issues from a "hostile takeover" of another OSS project could change the calculus substantially. If the company takes over the project by force, and you publicize the fact that they did this via the IP clause of your employment contract (which most developers regard as somewhat evil), that doesn't seem fun for their PR team. Even worse if you'd be able to fork the project.
Of course, this depends a lot on the details of your situation, so you should definitely find someone to talk through the details with who is good at negotiating. Just not sure if a lawyer is the best/only person to talk to.
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Best_alternative_to_a_negotiat...