31–40 of 47 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why would any employer agree to that?
I find it hard to believe that it would be an unreasonable request that any work you do outside of the office, on a personal machine, and not utilizing any company IP be under your ownership. If such an issue does turn into a sticking point during negotiations, you should strongly consider that a red flag.
I'm not sure how common this is, but it seems like something that everyone should look at before signing on with a company, especially with the battle for talent that's going on right now.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I find it hard to believe that it would be an unreasonable request that any work you do outside of the office, on a personal machine, and not utilizing any company IP be under your ownership. If such an issue does turn into a sticking point during negotiations, you should strongly consider that a red flag.
Indeed. Remember, it's companies that can't find programmers, not programmers that can't find jobs.
You're absolutely right that companies would be better off in attracting talent by revising portions of their contract. You're absolutely wrong to suppose that they're necessarily going to do that.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
By chance do you (or anyone) know what the law is regarding side-projects in Illinois?
Illinois generally follows the more permissive Cali-style model. The IEEE put out a publication that gives a solid overview of the differences in state laws; it mentions Illinois law specifically in a few places and includes a citation to Illinois statues that you can consult: http://www.ieeeusa.org/members/IPandtheengineer.pdf
I recently took that startup genome quiz and I hit upon a truth that I sort of already realized: To launch a successful startup you need to do it full time. So yes your weekend project could be the next Facebook, but the odds are really against you. I think the real issue with Silicon Alley (having been a part of the scene since the early 90s) is that Wall Street still swallows quite a bit of the top tech talent — th…
Unfortunately, the blog post is somewhat flawed. In the CA law he references, it clearly states that the exception to you owning your code/ideas is if they "relate at the time of conception or reduction to practice of the invention to the employer's business, or actual or demonstrably anticipated research or development of the employer." While IANAL, the consensus on a number of websites is that, while working for a…
That said a lot of these issues are being resolved, and I see both founders and investors making a very big dent this time around particularly with mobile start-ups.
At my company in NYC (Intent Media) the founders specifically spent time writing a clause into our standard employment agreement granting everyone the rights to their side projects. I'm not sure how common this is, but it seems like something that everyone should look at before signing on with a company, especially with the battle for talent that's going on right now.
At least that's my view of it. If anyone has an example of some programmer having his side project legally taken (i.e. a judge made him hand it over. Getting intimidated into handing it over outside of court doesn't count) by a company I'd love to see it.
At my company in NYC (Intent Media) the founders specifically spent time writing a clause into our standard employment agreement granting everyone the rights to their side projects. I'm not sure how common this is, but it seems like something that everyone should look at before signing on with a company, especially with the battle for talent that's going on right now.
It's a show of good faith but they would have no claim to your side projects anyway (unless you produced a direct competing product that they could reasonably demonstrate you had stolen from them). At least that's my view of it. If anyone has an example of some programmer having his side project legally taken (i.e. a judge made him hand it over. Getting intimidated into handing it over outside of court doesn't count)…
How about analyzing the situation for what it is: failing to protect independent innovation may result in less independent innovation. All the legal speculation and contract theorizing in the world will do no good if the facts of the matter tell a different story.