Intellectual Property

aidando

Hi all,

I'm not very familiar with IP rights and have seen a line in the contract of employment I signed a few months back with my current employer (an engineering company).

This is the statement..
"Any design development, innovation, improvement or copyright work organised by you in the course of your employment or other duties specifically assigned to you belong to the Company and must be immediately be disclosed to the Company."

Do statements like this only cover innovation and ideas related to the work I do in the course of my job or is it an open enough statement that it extends to other ideas I might have, either un-related or indirectly related to what I do at work. The statement seems all-encompassing. If for example I came up with an idea at home and worked on it on my own time, am I right to assume that is mine and mine alone and no company can touch that?

I dont have an idea I'm trying to protect but was just curious to know where I stand if inspiration did strike.

Thanks a lot.

NoQuarter

Copyright does not protect mere ideas. It has to be some work showing originality, skill and labour to be copyright protected.

D3sperado

The default position under the legislation is that the employer owns anything created by an employee during the course of their employment. Most companies will stick in a clause in their standard employee contracts anyway just to be on the safe side.

The clause seems to be along the same lines so anything created not in the course of employment would not belong to the company. This isn't necessarily the same thing as creating something at home because that could still be in the course of your employment e.g. thinking about some work related problem and creating something in your free time to overcome this may also be covered.

carryharry

NoQuarter wrote: »

Copyright does not protect mere ideas. It has to be some work showing originality, skill and labour to be copyright protected.

Hi NoQuarter

Quick question, a memeber of a certain discussion/forum site had his facebook page hacked and then posted on the forum after a spat with another memeber!

Legally where does this guy stand? Surely this is highly illegal?

Thanks

NoQuarter

carryharry wrote: »

Hi NoQuarter

Quick question, a memeber of a certain discussion/forum site had his facebook page hacked and then posted on the forum after a spat with another memeber!

Legally where does this guy stand? Surely this is highly illegal?

Thanks

Could you explain what happened a bit clearer? More details etc.

Vanolder

carryharry wrote: »

Hi NoQuarter

Quick question, a memeber of a certain discussion/forum site had his facebook page hacked and then posted on the forum after a spat with another memeber!

Legally where does this guy stand? Surely this is highly illegal?

Thanks

carryharry

Vanolder wrote: »

Van, i missed the Ballhop as ye call it over there.

You can continue following me if you want, up to you lad.

cluaindiuic

krd

aidando wrote: »

I dont have an idea I'm trying to protect but was just curious to know where I stand if inspiration did strike.

The idea behind these IP contracts, is say if you're working in a software company. It's to stop you stealing the software from work, and passing it off as your own.

But it has a broad application. Imagine you're working for a company that designed technology for oil pipelines. And they've spent years working on a design. You're an employee, you realise they've made a break through. You either steal the idea, or run off to a competitor with it.

Companies involved in things like design or research, their intellectual property is their product. It can take years and millions of euros to develop an new chemicals process. But the final product might be something that could neatly fit on an A4 copy page.

If you think your contract is restrictive you should have seen the pre-1945 laws in Germany concerning people working in the chemistry industry - and the laws pre-dated the Nazis. IG-Farben were very powerful and literally the only game in town - they could write their own laws. People working in the dye making/chemicals industry were only allowed leave Germany with permission from the government (they weren't allowed leave). People in the chemistry industry were not allowed speak to foreigners.

The American chemicals industry was far behind the Germans'. They were always trying to entice German engineers to come to the US. In Germany, they could, would, and did, imprison chemical engineers they thought were about to leave the country - the state had the attitude what's good for IG-Farben is good for Germany, so they would spy on the engineers. After 1945, these laws were wiped out - as it suited the Americans down to the ground. The Americans picked Germany clean of it's technology and skilled workers. The Russians did something similar - they kidnapped tens of thousands of skilled German workers. And ran off with every piece of capital goods that was and wasn't nailed down.