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Actually, now that I think about it, you may have a rock solid case in terms of copyright. Absent an employment or contractual agreement that makes your code a

Actually, now that I think about it, you may have a rock solid case in terms of copyright. Absent an employment or contractual agreement that makes your code a work-for-hire, you own the copyright to any code you write. If you don't have any agreements in place with the company your father started with you, then you still own the copyright to the code you presumably wrote during the early days. Even if they had developers who later built upon that, their copyright is derivative. They can't do anything with it without your agreement, including sell the company, the software, or really even deploy it if push comes to shove. I'm assuming you can prove your own copyright in the form of source control. I've been through exactly this situation with a client, and if I hadn't had that card to play I'd have gotten royally screwed dealing with them. I don't know if I ever really got as much out as I put in, but it made me almost-whole. (and you can reach out to me if you want the full story there, I'm not going to put it on HN.)

whiskers08xmt 9y ago
IANAL but my father is. This is exactly the advice he gave me in a similar situation. OP is the legal owner of the IP, if he was never given compensation, or signed away the rights. If I was in the OP's place, I would tell his family about this, but also that he doesn't intend to lawyer up. It sounds like the business is reliant on OP, OPs code, and OP's talents, so it would be in the best interest for every party involved to give OP a fair share of the company.
- karmajunkie 9y ago
  The problem he's going to run into now is that giving him his fair share is going to have dramatically greater tax implications if given in the form of equity. Options are a possibility, and if the company is an LLC there are interesting ways to play with a share of the profit account instead of the capital account. Any way you cut it though, it sounds like OP is owed some substantial proceeds. I hope we hear how this one gets resolved!

whiskers08xmt 9y ago

IANAL but my father is. This is exactly the advice he gave me in a similar situation. OP is the legal owner of the IP, if he was never given compensation, or signed away the rights. If I was in the OP's place, I would tell his family about this, but also that he doesn't intend to lawyer up. It sounds like the business is reliant on OP, OPs code, and OP's talents, so it would be in the best interest for every party involved to give OP a fair share of the company.

karmajunkie 9y ago
The problem he's going to run into now is that giving him his fair share is going to have dramatically greater tax implications if given in the form of equity. Options are a possibility, and if the company is an LLC there are interesting ways to play with a share of the profit account instead of the capital account. Any way you cut it though, it sounds like OP is owed some substantial proceeds. I hope we hear how this one gets resolved!