5 ms·

At the end of the day, it's all about the trust between you and your employer. Unless you know the people well, I won't be mixing code this way - with or withou

by karterk 13y ago

At the end of the day, it's all about the trust between you and your employer. Unless you know the people well, I won't be mixing code this way - with or without a written permission. Just too much hassle. Even if your direct manager approves it, the legal team etc. might have a different view.

ryanbrunner 13y ago
Related question: If I choose not to license / sell / whatever this code to my company, they're going to build it anyway. We're a small team and I'm in a fairly senior position - it would be impossible for me not to be involved in those discussions. Does that create legal issues if I continue to hold onto my side project (and potentially develop it further?)
- adambenayoun 13y ago
  Best answer is - consult a lawyer! ;)
- alok-g 13y ago
  It would most likely create legal issues [1]. Start by reading the employment agreement contract you signed with them when joining. More likely than not, and depending on where you are located, you already have an issue now since your side project is related to the employers line of business. If the side project is of significant value to you, I would recommend pulling out your employment agreement, reading it yourself [2], and consulting a lawyer. I think a win-win situation here would be for you to license the project to the company, where the license terms specifically limits their rights to what they need to solve their current problem at hand, and allows you to continue working on it. This can also save them time and effort. [1] Note: IANAL, though am generally very aware of IP issues. Have read two books on the subject. [2] These agreements are notable for using very long sentences, but are always very well crafted to be precise. You should not have an issue interpreting them right if you are a good software developer. They also use some specific terms though that you may need to learn. Wikipedia does a good job of explaining all of these. A term "related to the business" is amongst ones that are relatively undefined, i.e., it remains unclear from the agreements what is related and what is not [3]. [3] The term may be used in a much broader way than you think. Everything computers and electronics may be considered related as it all falls under the same trademark code. Yet, related may be used to imply only that that competes with the business.

by karterk 13y ago

ryanbrunner 13y ago

Related question: If I choose not to license / sell / whatever this code to my company, they're going to build it anyway. We're a small team and I'm in a fairly senior position - it would be impossible for me not to be involved in those discussions. Does that create legal issues if I continue to hold onto my side project (and potentially develop it further?)

adambenayoun 13y ago
Best answer is - consult a lawyer! ;)
alok-g 13y ago
It would most likely create legal issues [1]. Start by reading the employment agreement contract you signed with them when joining. More likely than not, and depending on where you are located, you already have an issue now since your side project is related to the employers line of business. If the side project is of significant value to you, I would recommend pulling out your employment agreement, reading it yourself [2], and consulting a lawyer. I think a win-win situation here would be for you to license the project to the company, where the license terms specifically limits their rights to what they need to solve their current problem at hand, and allows you to continue working on it. This can also save them time and effort. [1] Note: IANAL, though am generally very aware of IP issues. Have read two books on the subject. [2] These agreements are notable for using very long sentences, but are always very well crafted to be precise. You should not have an issue interpreting them right if you are a good software developer. They also use some specific terms though that you may need to learn. Wikipedia does a good job of explaining all of these. A term "related to the business" is amongst ones that are relatively undefined, i.e., it remains unclear from the agreements what is related and what is not [3]. [3] The term may be used in a much broader way than you think. Everything computers and electronics may be considered related as it all falls under the same trademark code. Yet, related may be used to imply only that that competes with the business.