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GitHub lets staff own IP developed for personal projects using company resources

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Re: GitHub lets staff own IP developed for personal projects using company resources

#32

Post by reallydattrue »

Personally I think this is wrong.

Employers should expect developers to work on company IP within contracted hours and any new code/IP is owned by the company.

In addition. Developers who have their own side-projects own that IP and if they work outside of contracted hours and generate new code on THEIR projects. Well, they own that IP also.

One caveat though. Developers should allow employers to go through their generated code, to ensure that developers aren't stealing company IP.

Oh but if a company wants some code that the developer generated in his own time? Well, negotiations should start. The company should pay for that!

Re: GitHub lets staff own IP developed for personal projects using company resources

#36

Post by soverance »

uniclaude wrote: post #8

People keep complaining about how hard and expensive it is to attract top talent. This kind of measure is exactly how you do it. Provide an environment where employees feel trusted and empowered, pay market rate, screen properly instead of having applicants jump through hoops, and you won't have much trouble hiring. Kudos to github for this, I'm impressed!

For real. I am an indie game dev who recently released his first big game on Steam. Just a week or two ago I had a prospective company tell me that, in order to hire me, I would need to sell them the entirety of my personally-developed IP and dissolve my interest in my own company.

Needless to say, I decided against that job.

Re: GitHub lets staff own IP developed for personal projects using company resources

#37

Post by Thrillington »

kutkloon7 wrote: post #22

"But rather than negotiating a deal, Alcatel fired Brown and sued him for ownership of the idea. After a seven-year-long court battle, he lost and was forced to spend three months at the company’s offices, without pay, writing out the code to implement his solution." I deeply hate the judge who made this verdict. You must be truly devoid of human feeling and common sense to explain this as a reasonable application of…

It's morally bankrupt, but legally correct.

Re: GitHub lets staff own IP developed for personal projects using company resources

#38

Post by jankotek »

Most corporations I interviewed with have this policy, including Microsoft and some large banks. Otherwise it would be impossible to attract OS developers.

Also the agreement[1] is not completely rosy, it has some strings attached.

For example if you are working on CSS library, Github uses it and contracts you to make some patches, they might claim IP ownership over those patches. That is a mine field for OS project.

I personally would not sign it. It needs extra clause to clarify what projects are excluded.

> The Company owns any IP ("Company IP") that you create, or help create as its employee or contractor, .... related to an existing or prospective Company product or service at the time you developed, invented, or created it

[1] https://github.com/github/balanced-employee-ip-agreement/blo...

(I am not a lawyer, just a hobby)

Re: GitHub lets staff own IP developed for personal projects using company resources

#39

Post by sillysaurus3 »

superbatfish wrote: post #30
kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But it would be reasonable of them to expect you to give up something in exchange (e.g. smaller salary). Except when the side project is useful for your employer and you've effectively contributed free, unpaid labor to developing it.

The question here isn't whether your should work on side projects at all. It's about who owns the side project when you're done.

I wonder if the person doing all the work should own it, or the person who did none of the work and gave no capital?
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