Btw, Intellectual Property Rights are daaaaaaaaaaamn hard to prove in any company. I once asked as to how one could make sure IP is rock solid.
If you document every minute task regarding the product, you could argue its totally their IP (this includes code documentation, schematics, corrospondence, logs etc) - ie a lot of stuff that gets filed under "ProductX IP". If you trademark/patent the application in question (which is a task unto itself - similiar to the above). Simply pointing to a word doc that outlined some ideas, and the code and asking folks to connect the dots doesn't hold water in fact, copyright has a slim hold on that alone. There is a lot of assumptions with the big bad "IP" no holds bar, and usually its b.s - the rare moments where one *could* get pinned for it, would be a freakin money sink in terms of legal costs alone. I absolutely laugh when I here other developers get threatend with legal action XYZ or crap like that when they go off on their own and remake a concept that was inspired at work - lets face it, everyone knows the idea was taken from their employer in some form of way.... - yet you could call their bluff and go the legal path and again it typically wouldn't be a worthwhile case.. on the other hand if you creation starts to generate some high revenue and the company you worked for was pretty darn rich...that could be a wortwhile fight.. but if your company makes small profits and your only making a small profit with the software then reality you both couldn't afford it and principal alone won't pay the bills. MORAL Rights can be argued as well - *rolls eyes*.. it comes down to "my lawyer is bigger and smarter then your lawyer...nah ah...mine is..." On 5/11/05, Scott Barnes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On 5/11/05, Steve Onnis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > If your employed by the company on a salary/full time/part time basis, then > > the company owns it. It comes hand in hand with being an employee. > > Negative. > > An employer does not retain the rights to all creations you develop > whilest under the employee, unless they specifically allocate you as a > resource to build that said product. In that going by the above > assumption, technically you could argue that my employer owns my model > plane i just build out of popsticks. Why? well name one contract that > you've seen where it states that "we own all coldfusion applications > you make"... keyword being coldfusion. As technologies are so vast > that you really need to outline whats required of you as an employee > and what you have to give over (ie technology constraints) in order to > be one. > > An Example comes to mind where, it specifically said that it forbid me > to create an application in the same industry as my employer is in for > 6 months upon leaving the employer (which can be argued as "restraint > of trade"). Now first glance that sounds fine, but the contract > neglected to outline what their "Industry is" so, that clause was > considered "vague and open to suggestion". > > This is umm adhoc legal advice and probably lost in translation, but > everytime I start/leave a job, i see a lawyer to simply cover my butt > (what do i need to be mindful of etc) - kind of like a medical check > before i start the next job. > > You'd be amazed what gets put into contracts but have absolutely no > substance and the clauses that do, are so vaguely defined that they > could mean a million things and so wouldn't see the light of day if > legal action were to be taken. (Keep in mind when a legal action takes > place, there has to be "no doubt" that partyA screwd partyB over). > > In your case, i'd say yeah you should be fine. Provided you can state > that its your own creation and you aren't using work that you've > designed/created in the organisation. ... basically don't freakin > install it at work, keep it off your work hdd.. in fact don't even > bring it in on a laptop to work as that could be a gray area. > > Seek a lawyer before you go to market, even its still in idea stage as > they will have the ins/outs of specifically whats legal/illegal > instead of this throw-away advice on CFAUSSIE :) > > Heh i've had one or two employers threaten legal advice, i simply roll > my eyes, hand the threats to my solicitor, which he then draws up a > reply which tells them that clauses ABC are fubar, and if you really > want to go down this path, we are more then happy to. > > It helps also having a mate who's a lawyer and doesn't charge you ;) hehehehe. > > -- > Regards, > Scott Barnes > Who thinks Chads Signatures are funny and should be part of all email clients. > > --- > You are currently subscribed to cfaussie as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Aussie Macromedia Developers: http://lists.daemon.com.au/ > -- Regards, Scott Barnes http://www.mossyblog.com http://www.flexcoder.com (Coming Soon) --- You are currently subscribed to cfaussie as: [email protected] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Aussie Macromedia Developers: http://lists.daemon.com.au/
