In Norway, no.
Some companies try to put it in the contract, but it has no base in law and holds no legal obligations. I.e. you can ignore the clause safely.
Does my company have IP rights to the stuff I do in my spare time?
21–30 of 120 posts
Re: Does my company have IP rights to the stuff I do in my spare time?
#22Very 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…
This also varies somewhat by state; there's a law in California (Labor Code section 2870[1]) that bars employers from claiming work that an employee does "on his or her own time without using the employer's equipment, supplies, facilities or trade secret information" unless the invention relates directly to the employer's business. I'd still check with a lawyer, though, even if in California --- and if elsewhere, mos…
Be sure to read subsections 1 & 2, they're really really important.
Re: Does my company have IP rights to the stuff I do in my spare time?
#23Very 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…
Not in California; we have a state law that specifically addresses (and forbids) this kind of behavior by companies. I'll let a poster over at the OP speak for me:
California is one state where their policy is NOT enforceable as far as their ownership. They may fire you over it but they won't own your work.
Re: Does my company have IP rights to the stuff I do in my spare time?
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
This also varies somewhat by state; there's a law in California (Labor Code section 2870[1]) that bars employers from claiming work that an employee does "on his or her own time without using the employer's equipment, supplies, facilities or trade secret information" unless the invention relates directly to the employer's business. I'd still check with a lawyer, though, even if in California --- and if elsewhere, mos…
It may be harder than you expect to establish that you're not in a business related to your former employer, at least to the extent that you can quickly end a legal action; all I'm saying is, that legal safeguard may not be as helpful as you'd hope.
Particularly if the employer is someone like Microsoft or Google that does, well... a little of everything. As I said, it's definitely worth consulting a lawyer before taking anything for granted.
Re: Does my company have IP rights to the stuff I do in my spare time?
#25I recently came up against this sort of nonsense in a job interview. I do a lot of technological stuff in my spare time, so as soon as they mentioned that I would have to agree to stop engaging in such extra-curricular activities I ended the negotiations.
Re: Does my company have IP rights to the stuff I do in my spare time?
#26I wouldn't mind allowing a company to have rights over what I do on my own time as long as I get ownership rights over everything else the company is doing, regardless of whether I'm involved or not. Fair's fair.
Re: Does my company have IP rights to the stuff I do in my spare time?
#27IANAL, 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 resourc…
> and provably is unrelated
I've been told by a professional that "unrelated" generally means work that might be in a different profession - and that to a court, "computers" could be considered a single profession in this sort of case. Work done in the field of "computers" outside of work, and you work for a "computer" firm? Related. Ergo your employer owns the IP.
So yeah, don't depend on it. At all.
This is the advice I was given when verifying that I had the IP relating to my startup. To avoid any doubt, I got the IP signed over with a contract I paid a solicitor for. This cost money, but more importantly it helped that my former employer was willing to do this.
Thinking about it, this default is the sort of thing that stifles innovation. If the Government wants to promote innovation, perhaps they should change the rules.
Edited to add: I'm in the UK.
Re: Does my company have IP rights to the stuff I do in my spare time?
#28I'm in sales and in my spare time I am creating a program for online data management(which will also create leads although they're B2B and my company does B2C). Can I use the "not work related" exemption or should I renegotiate my employment agreement? I work in Nevada. Thank you for any help you can give me.
Re: Does my company have IP rights to the stuff I do in my spare time?
#29Google, my employer, recently refused a request that I made to release as open source some software that I had been working on in my spare time and without using any of their resources, on they claim that my software would compete with one of their projects. :-(
There's a story in there. Did Google actually have any claims to the software you wrote? If not, then you wouldn't need their persmission (except that now that you asked, they could fire you for disregarding their "advice").
I'd love to hear cdibona's views on that.
Re: Does my company have IP rights to the stuff I do in my spare time?
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
This also varies somewhat by state; there's a law in California (Labor Code section 2870[1]) that bars employers from claiming work that an employee does "on his or her own time without using the employer's equipment, supplies, facilities or trade secret information" unless the invention relates directly to the employer's business. I'd still check with a lawyer, though, even if in California --- and if elsewhere, mos…
It may be harder than you expect to establish that you're not in a business related to your former employer, at least to the extent that you can quickly end a legal action; all I'm saying is, that legal safeguard may not be as helpful as you'd hope.
You're absolutely right. There are really two questions here:
* Does my employer own this?
* Will they make me prove that in court?
The damnable thing is that, even if you really do own your work, having to prove that you own it in court may kill your startup by making you run out of money.