Does my company have IP rights to the stuff I do in my spare time?
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Does my company have IP rights to the stuff I do in my spare time?
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Re: Does my company have IP rights to the stuff I do in my spare time?
#2Very often, yes. The boilerplate IP contracts provided by most law firms usually claims one of:
* All software development work you ever do while employed by the company.
* All software development work you do using in any way any resource of the company, from computer to network connection.
* All software development work you do related to the business of the company that employs you.
* All software development work you do that isn't explicitly listed in an exhibit of exceptions you, the employee, fill out.
Before you start asking how enforceable this stuff is, note that unlike with noncompetes (which usually aren't practically enforceable), the way this issue is going to come up is, you're going to try to start a company, and your first official act of business is going to be to start defending yourself against legal actions from your employer that will torpedo any chance you have of getting funding for the year or so it takes for those actions to resolve themselves.
So, 'grellas may chime in and say "don't worry about this", in which case ignore me, but I wouldn't dick around with this issue. If my IP contract precluded me from working on my next company project, I'd get a clarified official path to working on it from my employer, and leave if one wasn't provided.
Re: Does my company have IP rights to the stuff I do in my spare time?
#3Depends on where you live. Heavily state dependent.
Re: Does my company have IP rights to the stuff I do in my spare time?
#4Interesting read, its doubtful they can.
If it ever came to a dispute, id follow the guidance of mark zuckerberg and fight it out for the rights to my work.
Re: Does my company have IP rights to the stuff I do in my spare time?
#5Interested to hear perspectives from Europe/UK as well as the US, so if you mention specifics please say where this is relevant.
Re: Does my company have IP rights to the stuff I do in my spare time?
#6Interesting read, its doubtful they can. If it ever came to a dispute, id follow the guidance of mark zuckerberg and fight it out for the rights to my work.
This seems like a fairly uninformed view of the Zuckerberg story. In the end, Facebook settled those claims for huge amounts of money (and only were able to because they in fact had huge amounts of money).
Re: Does my company have IP rights to the stuff I do in my spare time?
#7Very much state dependent, and very much modified by the employment agreement (if you had one) when you joined a company. You can, and should, strike any objectionable material from the employment agreement, have the HR person who is helping you with your first day paperwork sign off on the changes, make a copy of the document, have the HR person sign the copy acknowledging it is a true copy of what was signed, and put that somewhere safe.
If the company won't accept your changes, then that is your signal that not only do they intend to own IP rights to perhaps everything you have done or will do, they also intend to litigate for those rights which you will have signed over to them with the agreement.
That is a good time to decide if you want to work there or not.
For folks who are thinking about changing companys but have yet to make the jump, ask your future employer to give you a copy of the employment agreement before you accept their offer. Have it reviewed by a lawyer. That way you can find out before you give notice that you weren't going to work there anyway.
At least for tech employees there is enough demand on the hiring side to give you an advantage.
Re: Does my company have IP rights to the stuff I do in my spare time?
#8Link broken? All I get is "Portal Not Found"
Re: Does my company have IP rights to the stuff I do in my spare time?
#9IANAL, but in the UK, unless you have a contract that specifically says otherwise, yes.
On the other hand, if the outside work provably used no employer resources, and provably is unrelated, then you can probably defend yourself against an action. But you really, really don't want to depend on that.
Get it sorted up front. Get an explicit agreement with your employer that non-competing work done without their resources and without impacting your work, belongs to you.
Otherwise it's murky and dangerous.
Re: Does my company have IP rights to the stuff I do in my spare time?
#10It's a seller's market, don't take a job at a company with policies you don't agree with, regardless of how common they are or how enforceable they might be[1]. It's quite easy to find employers in the bay area that don't demand such things or will waive the clause.
Make sure to tell them why you didn't take the job.
[1] I suppose if it's clearly and completely unenforceable little harm is done