4 ms·

Ask HN: How to Notify Company of Personal Invention

11 points by euroclydon 16y ago

I am required to notify my company about any inventions that I "conceive, develop, or reduce to practice" and that I believe are exempt from being assigned to the company because they are not related to company products or R&D, and because I developed them on my own time using my own resources. My questions is: What level of detail needs to go into this document? Are there any good blogs or example letters to go by? Thanks!

Skywing 16y ago
You know, I always sign these documents but I don't think I'd ever actually tell them about anything I made during my free time if it had nothing to do with what the company did. That's just me, though. I doubt that it's the advised approach.
- alextingle 16y ago
  If you ever have a $1bn idea, they'll sue the shit out of you because you failed to notify them.
alextingle 16y ago
First of all, you should not have signed that contract. Secondly, you should definitely advise them of every idea that you have, big or small, but especially small. Start with the small ones. I'm sure that pretty soon they will advise you what level of detail is required. Keep all correspondence, and good luck. ;)
- bdclimber14 16y ago
  It's amazing how easy it is to avoid singing the IP contract. I've had 4 engineering jobs each with big name companies, and have never actually signed it. I've handed the stack of paperwork back unsigned, I've amended contracts and initialled, I've "lost" that specific page.
  - ig1 16y ago
    You should avoid misleading your company, that's just asking for trouble. If you don't want to agree to a particular part of a contract you should be open and discuss it with the company rather than trying to slip changes in under the rader (which depending on your jurisdiction may be illegal). Imagine what happens if your company gets acquired, and during the due diligence the acquirer discovers that a critical employee contract is missing vital IP clauses because that employee "lost" that page. You could end up destroying your company.
    - bdclimber14 16y ago
      I understand the last part, and wouldn't do this to a small team or startup. This probably wouldn't work with a tight-knit team anyways. It's mostly for big companies, working for "the man." Generally discussing this with them won't be productive. I would do this though if they realized that I didn't sign a particular contract. It is their responsibility to make sure I signed the documents though.
      - pasbesoin 16y ago
        I would be interested in further opinions on this approach. I've taken it at least once. I didn't have any leverage with which to negotiate. OTOH I was not doing any work that merited a "your life belongs to us" contract. It was another form that Legal drafted and HR had you sign, pro forma (as it were). I said I would need to review it. Took it with me, from my "Welcome to Big Co. meeting", and simply never returned it. No one ever followed up. As far as I'm concerned, I didn't sign it and therefore it wasn't / isn't in force. Am I mistaken, entirely or to some degree? Depending on the position, these days I'd take a more considered approach. At the time, my personal cost/benefit considerations didn't seem to warrant this; also, running somewhat similar questions by a personal attorney, with respect to a severance package, had generated a distinct attitude of... indifference, if not neglect, from said attorney, perhaps also influencing my attitude at the time. (Not even a suggestion/referral to someone specializing in that area of law.)
andymurd 16y ago
I've been in this position a couple of times during my career. Both times I sent an email to the HR department (always the least efficient of any large corp) stating that I had created new intellectual property relating to mynewdomain.com. I include the relevant paragraphs of my employment contract and state that I believe I am compliant. I never say what my invention does or what I hope it will do. I never say what I projects worked on for the company. I never say what I want HR to do. I've never had any follow up except for a thank-you email, but then none of my ideas have become wildly successful.
kirpekar 16y ago
Don't bother notifying them. (I've been in this situation may times). If the idea remains small and the startup/project has limited success, they are not going to come after you. If the idea is good, you start a company and eventually get successful, they might come after you. In that case, you have one extra little thing to worry about.

11 points by euroclydon 16y ago

Skywing 16y ago

You know, I always sign these documents but I don't think I'd ever actually tell them about anything I made during my free time if it had nothing to do with what the company did. That's just me, though. I doubt that it's the advised approach.

alextingle 16y ago
If you ever have a $1bn idea, they'll sue the shit out of you because you failed to notify them.

alextingle 16y ago

First of all, you should not have signed that contract. Secondly, you should definitely advise them of every idea that you have, big or small, but especially small. Start with the small ones. I'm sure that pretty soon they will advise you what level of detail is required. Keep all correspondence, and good luck. ;)

bdclimber14 16y ago
It's amazing how easy it is to avoid singing the IP contract. I've had 4 engineering jobs each with big name companies, and have never actually signed it. I've handed the stack of paperwork back unsigned, I've amended contracts and initialled, I've "lost" that specific page.
- ig1 16y ago
  You should avoid misleading your company, that's just asking for trouble. If you don't want to agree to a particular part of a contract you should be open and discuss it with the company rather than trying to slip changes in under the rader (which depending on your jurisdiction may be illegal). Imagine what happens if your company gets acquired, and during the due diligence the acquirer discovers that a critical employee contract is missing vital IP clauses because that employee "lost" that page. You could end up destroying your company.
  - bdclimber14 16y ago
    I understand the last part, and wouldn't do this to a small team or startup. This probably wouldn't work with a tight-knit team anyways. It's mostly for big companies, working for "the man." Generally discussing this with them won't be productive. I would do this though if they realized that I didn't sign a particular contract. It is their responsibility to make sure I signed the documents though.
    - pasbesoin 16y ago
      I would be interested in further opinions on this approach. I've taken it at least once. I didn't have any leverage with which to negotiate. OTOH I was not doing any work that merited a "your life belongs to us" contract. It was another form that Legal drafted and HR had you sign, pro forma (as it were). I said I would need to review it. Took it with me, from my "Welcome to Big Co. meeting", and simply never returned it. No one ever followed up. As far as I'm concerned, I didn't sign it and therefore it wasn't / isn't in force. Am I mistaken, entirely or to some degree? Depending on the position, these days I'd take a more considered approach. At the time, my personal cost/benefit considerations didn't seem to warrant this; also, running somewhat similar questions by a personal attorney, with respect to a severance package, had generated a distinct attitude of... indifference, if not neglect, from said attorney, perhaps also influencing my attitude at the time. (Not even a suggestion/referral to someone specializing in that area of law.)

andymurd 16y ago

I've been in this position a couple of times during my career. Both times I sent an email to the HR department (always the least efficient of any large corp) stating that I had created new intellectual property relating to mynewdomain.com. I include the relevant paragraphs of my employment contract and state that I believe I am compliant. I never say what my invention does or what I hope it will do. I never say what I projects worked on for the company. I never say what I want HR to do. I've never had any follow up except for a thank-you email, but then none of my ideas have become wildly successful.

kirpekar 16y ago

Don't bother notifying them. (I've been in this situation may times). If the idea remains small and the startup/project has limited success, they are not going to come after you. If the idea is good, you start a company and eventually get successful, they might come after you. In that case, you have one extra little thing to worry about.