2
mr-user
4y

I got the question about the ownership of the technology.

I understand If I develop my own technology outside of company work hour and without using company resource,I own the technology. Let call this technology "X".

If the company want me to work on "X" during company hour with company resource to profit off it, do I still own "X"?

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    @Benutzername

    I don't own "X" even though the first version is develop as my own project and the second version is developed with company resource?
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    No.

    And be sure your contract with the company actually states that they don't own project X even if your not using company resources or hours.

    You are a resource "owned" / "contracted" to the company and in many places, anything you do on the side is theirs.
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    @C0D4

    In which state should I make the contract with the company? When I got the idea and put it into notebook or when I got the actual prototype?

    How does open source function anyway if the company own everything developer does as side project?

    I am sure that not every developer who contribute on open source or create a open source project is a freelance developer.
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    @C0D4 If the clause is not explicitly stated in a contract , do they still own it?
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    @mr-user that's a per contract basis really and "depends" would be the answer here.

    <!> not a lawyer... blurby bit.. can't give advice... <!>

    Open source is probably a weird line depending on the company, generally it's not profitable ($$).. so probably safe.

    But if you were to say, make a commercial viable product, make money off it, and your contract contains a "all your base belongs to us" clause, your up shit creek if the lawyers get wind of it.

    If it doesn't actually say it, then "maybe" (insert legal system and lawyers here) you can get away with it, but that comes back to the "depends" on how bad the company wants it's royalties before you quit and tell them to shove it up their ass.
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    So to be on a safe side , wait until I quit the company to start developing an idea which can make a serious profit (even though that idea can save a company a lot of $$).

    That look like a dishonest of me but I really like to keep my intellectual property.

    I will probably needed to consult with someone in the company.
  • 0
    This depends on the relevant legislation of and also your contract and without knowing righter of these a good advise can't be given.

    I know that where I life as long as I don't use company resources anything I produce is mine.

    When I was a bachelor student the university owned it al so we had to get stuff in writing regarding ownership if we had anything that might be financially viable.
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    Most likely - no. However, it depends on your contract. You should talk to HR about this as it might violate the NCA.

    In order to keep the sheep healthy and the wolf fed, I'd say you should make an explicit and crystal clear statement/set of statements regarding the topic in your contract, i.e. sign some paper with your company clearly drawing ownership rights/lines.

    EDIT: my current employer applies this practice. i.e. in case, an employee feels there might be a conflict of interests, he/she should step up and talk to the branch/company manager to clear the mist and agree on further steps/arrangements to be made.
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    @mr-user You have a noncompetition clause (probably).
    So if your idea is in anyway in the same area as of expertise as your company, welp, you’ll need to wait 2 years before you can go commercial with that.
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    If all you care about is being able to use the code on your next job, dump it in the public domain. You won't be able to be the only one making money off of it, but your current company sure can't prevent you from doing so at a later date since they don't own the code. They have merely expanded upon code in the public domain. The fact you wrote it then becomes 100% irrelevant.
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