intellectual property

skipn_easy

I know there's been a couple of posts on this kind've thing recently but I didn't see anything about intellectual property. Just been looking at a contract for a job that I will be starting soon and it mentions that anything that I may do on my own or with someone else while working for the company will be the property of the company(this would be software development).

I don't want to be nit-picking on small pieces of the contract, but is this normal, or fair? Its probably unlikely to come up, but if I was to work on something in my own time (unrelated to the work I do for them) I'd hate to hand it over to the company... And is it ok to negotiate the terms of a contract or is it a case of take it or leave it?

G

Negotiating has it's risks but should be ok if you're reasonable. If you're doing contract work for another company I don't understand how you could be doing work 'in your own time'. If it's time that they're paying you for then you should be working their project and so that work should belong to them.

skipn_easy

Well, outside of work hours, evenings and weekends I could well be working on my own projects/ideas and wouldn't want that to belong to them. Obviosly anything I do while they're paying me to work should be theirs.

G

They don't own anything you do outside of the hours they're paying you. And in any case, how would they know what you get up to in your own time.

GuanYin

Originally posted by skipn_easy
it mentions that anything that I may do on my own or with someone else while working for the company will be the property of the company(this would be software development).

I think you may have misread it?

Patent contracts are a nighmare to understand but a normal work contract should not be amiguous so to give this impression.

I'd go over again and make sure you have it right. If you're still not sure perhaps have a solicitor read over it. I have mine read over any legal document I am to sign and in fairness, the peace of mind it gives is well well worth the small cost.

Kernel32

It is normal to sign a intellectual property agreement while doing software development, I have signed several over the years. Generally it means anything you do or even think of on company time and that means using the companies equipment for personal use while not on the clock, then the company owns it. The essence of the agreement is fine, but in case you feel they are crossing the line into anything you do outside of work using your own personal equipment then I would get a legal person to review it before signing. Don't ever sign a non-compete though!

skipn_easy

Thanks for the replies. I was intending to clarify it with them tomorrow, it is possible that I misread it, as I'm not very up on legal terminology. It didn't mention during work hours or anything like that though, more like 'during the course of your employment with us'. I'm happy enough to give them anything I do for them on company time, or while using their equipment but don't want to be limited on what I can do in my own time if they're going to have rights to that too.

RicardoSmith

Most contract work has this clause. For software work its hard to enforce as a lot of the stuff you will use will be cut and pasted from other sources or based on ideas that you've seen elsewhere.