6 ms·
It's his tool, why give it away for free?
by dsego 9y ago
It's his tool, why give it away for free?
- maskedinvader 9y agobecause the ip belongs to the company because presumably he developed it during working hours using the company's resources.
- s73ver 9y agoOnly if the contract says so. Since it wasn't a development job, there's a chance that clause isn't there.
- greggman 9y agoThis is not my understanding at all. In the USA employers own the work of their employees if that work is related to the employer's business which this clearly is. No clause or contract is required for this to be the case. It's the default state. It might be different in other countries but I doubt it. Employees have a "duty of loyalty". https://www.google.com/search?q=employee+duty+of+loyalty https://www.google.com/search?q=employee+duty+of+loyalty That would seem to include things like this issue. It also includes not competing with your employer.
- s73ver 9y agoIf that were the case, they wouldn't need those clauses inserted into contracts. The idea of any kind of "duty of loyalty" is absolutely laughable in this day and age. Employers have long since rejected any sense of having loyalty to their employees. Also, if you're going to link to something, at least link to the Wikipedia article on it. Linking to a Google search is pretty dickish.
- greggman 9y agoLinking to google wasn't meant to be dickish. Wikipedia's article on the topic is sorely lacking and rather than pick some random law firm's blog I thought it was best to just link to google so people could easily read several different people's perspective on the topic. here's one for California 2016 http://blogs.orrick.com/trade-secrets-watch/2016/01/19/the-duty-of-loyalty-awakens/ http://blogs.orrick.com/trade-secrets-watch/2016/01/19/the-d...
- emodendroket 9y agoWell, I mean, generally, any tools you create on company time, with company resources, are assigned to the company, if you're an employee.
- kungito 9y agoOnly if the contract says so. And just because the contract says so doesn't mean it's morally correct, only that they managed to get you to sign it.
- matthewmacleod 9y agoI'm pretty sure that's not true – in the UK at least, any work created during a course of employment belongs to the employer. There's nothing in the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act that explicitly defines what 'course of employment' means but a court would certainly consider it valid were the works produced on company time using company equipment.
- wtallis 9y agoIf you offer to automate something and the employer says "no, don't mess with our system; it works for us", then automating it behind their backs might not be a work for hire even though it's clearly work-related. This even sounds like the author was being treated more like an independent contractor than an employee.
- jpindar 9y agoThat's not true in the US either. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work_for_hire https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work_for_hire
- s73ver 9y agoSoftware is specifically exempted from that.
- qb45 9y ago
- arcticfox 9y agoHow is this his tool if he made it at work, on his employer's dime?
- artur_makly 9y agomaybe he made it during his recreational / non working time ..