3 ms·

Well... this strays into the territory of unenforceability and severability. You know how practically every contract you sign anymore has something to the effe

Well... this strays into the territory of unenforceability and severability. You know how practically every contract you sign anymore has something to the effect of 'invalidating some portion of this contract does not invalidate the rest of it'? The courts have held that an unenforceable clause in a contract that is not indicated as 'severable' will make the entire contract unenforceable. Instead of doing the pleasant thing, and making contracts that stay within in the bounds they are allowed by law, companies started claiming that every portion of every contract was severable. What this means is that they can throw any kind of crap in there, whether they could actually invoke it or not. Add that to the fact that the majority of the population of the US doesn't even read the contracts they sign (seriously, they don't), and companies are incentivized to throw the kitchen sink into their documents, and leave the decisions about what is enforceable until later. Specifically, the region of your work that they can claim ip rights over is tightly limited by the definition of 'work for hire', regardless of what they try to claim in your contract.

mcherm 14y ago
Yes, but severability just means that a clause which is illegal will not be enforced. It doesn't mean you can ignore clauses which are undesirable or just plain stupid. Any clause which is LEGAL will still stand. And as far as I know, both state of PA and US law permit a person to sign away the copywrite on any work they wish to. So I think (although I am not a lawyer) that this clause would have had a good chance of being enforceable.
- nevinera 14y ago
  > And as far as I know, both state of PA and US law permit a person to sign away the copywrite on any work they wish to They do, but not until it exists. You can't sign away work until you've done it, unless it fits the work-for-hire definition. Now, you can write a contract agreeing to transfer the IP afterward, but then you have to actually perform that transfer, and if you don't you can get sued for breach of contract, but not for infringement. It's possible that there's case-law interpreting this type of contract to imply a commitment to transfer IP, but I don't think it's very likely.

mcherm 14y ago

Yes, but severability just means that a clause which is illegal will not be enforced. It doesn't mean you can ignore clauses which are undesirable or just plain stupid. Any clause which is LEGAL will still stand. And as far as I know, both state of PA and US law permit a person to sign away the copywrite on any work they wish to. So I think (although I am not a lawyer) that this clause would have had a good chance of being enforceable.

nevinera 14y ago
> And as far as I know, both state of PA and US law permit a person to sign away the copywrite on any work they wish to They do, but not until it exists. You can't sign away work until you've done it, unless it fits the work-for-hire definition. Now, you can write a contract agreeing to transfer the IP afterward, but then you have to actually perform that transfer, and if you don't you can get sued for breach of contract, but not for infringement. It's possible that there's case-law interpreting this type of contract to imply a commitment to transfer IP, but I don't think it's very likely.