Assignment of Intellectual Property Clause
Assignment of Intellectual Property Clause
(OP)
These contact clauses for the assignment of all property rights to the company have always bugged me. Although, I am completely willing to accept that if I do something with company time or resources, they have every right to own my work. But today I'm reading a clause which states that the exclusive ownership by the company 'whether or not the development involved the use of Company time, material, etc.' Is that even legal? Oh yeah, and this fine clause extends for one year after my contract expires.
Is there a graceful way to keep my rights to things like blog posts, random drawings and projects done at home, moonlighting jobs, ideas conceived and in progress but not actualized? I might not sell many of these things, but it's fun to try. And I don't really want to have to 'promptly disclose' every little thing that I do outside of work hours.
I guess my only options are 1) strike the clause (or clarify it) and risk losing the job. or 2) live with it and follow the rules to the utmost until they tell me to stop bothering them with every little thing I do.
Is there a graceful way to keep my rights to things like blog posts, random drawings and projects done at home, moonlighting jobs, ideas conceived and in progress but not actualized? I might not sell many of these things, but it's fun to try. And I don't really want to have to 'promptly disclose' every little thing that I do outside of work hours.
I guess my only options are 1) strike the clause (or clarify it) and risk losing the job. or 2) live with it and follow the rules to the utmost until they tell me to stop bothering them with every little thing I do.





RE: Assignment of Intellectual Property Clause
Bottom line is never sign a contract that you can't live with.
David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering
"Belief" is the acceptance of an hypotheses in the absence of data.
"Prejudice" is having an opinion not supported by the preponderance of the data.
"Knowledge" is only found through the accumulation and analysis of data.
RE: Assignment of Intellectual Property Clause
Many of us, fortunately including our local HR director, had issue and so he went back to the new corporates and got clarification that it didn't apply to ideas out side of work, not relating to work and not done on work resources etc.
Bad thing was they didn't actually change the wording of the NDA, and it had a clause about no changes or addendum etc.
What is Engineering anyway: FAQ1088-1484: In layman terms, what is "engineering"?
RE: Assignment of Intellectual Property Clause
Cheers
Greg Locock
New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?
RE: Assignment of Intellectual Property Clause
RE: Assignment of Intellectual Property Clause
(Link to Labor Code) http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?sect...
I've been reading some things on standard Employment Agreements, and it looks like this company put all the harshest optional wording into their boilerplate.
RE: Assignment of Intellectual Property Clause
I've also been troubled with those standard employment agreements and Intellectual Property agreements that dictate all my subatomic particles now belong to the company. I needed a succint response to counter the lazy patent lawyer verbiage and HR Weasel threat of no signature, no job. Now I've got the ammunition to form my own addendum to any contract. Or walk away if need be.
My experience with the whole Intellectual Property game over the last few years has led me to believe it is a lawyer's game, if not an outright sham. I've been bewildered to see CompanyA secure patent rights on GizmoA. CompanyB will take the essence of GizmoA, give one of the bolts an extra 1/4-turn, and call it GizmoB. Then say it is different from GizmoA and get a patent disclosure on GizmoB. I try to have faith in the system and believe that there is merit in how this is done, but it seems so...so...deceptive and sleazy. And clearly, my independent thoughts & actions, within reasonable bounds, are my own.
TygerDawg
Blue Technik LLC
Virtuoso Robotics Engineering
www.bluetechnik.com
RE: Assignment of Intellectual Property Clause
David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering
"Belief" is the acceptance of an hypotheses in the absence of data.
"Prejudice" is having an opinion not supported by the preponderance of the data.
"Knowledge" is only found through the accumulation and analysis of data.
RE: Assignment of Intellectual Property Clause
Not to be impertinent - I think you need a new lawyer - most patents are in the $10-15,000 range - usually... in my experience.
RE: Assignment of Intellectual Property Clause
David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering
"Belief" is the acceptance of an hypotheses in the absence of data.
"Prejudice" is having an opinion not supported by the preponderance of the data.
"Knowledge" is only found through the accumulation and analysis of data.
RE: Assignment of Intellectual Property Clause
RE: Assignment of Intellectual Property Clause
Mike McCann
MMC Engineering
http://mmcengineering.tripod.com
RE: Assignment of Intellectual Property Clause
Although as I ask friends about this, the wording in the contract is apparently very common. I guess most people just ignore the contract and go about their daily lives. Not very healthy.
RE: Assignment of Intellectual Property Clause
David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering
"Belief" is the acceptance of an hypotheses in the absence of data.
"Prejudice" is having an opinion not supported by the preponderance of the data.
"Knowledge" is only found through the accumulation and analysis of data.
RE: Assignment of Intellectual Property Clause
Well, there is no written agreement on what my duties are and, since it is a small office, I do a lot of things outside of a typical project manager scope. Oh sure, the owner is always going to get around to completing the position agreements and revising the structure of each position -- but that would take away from his July in San Diego. I am now finalizing my contractor's license and starting my own installation company. I know the owner is going to claim I am competing with him so I had a good labor lawyer look at it. She explained very directly that, if you are a registered contractor and he is in material sales, you are not in violation (there are some things it would be prudent for me to stay away from for a couple years though). Besides, in my locality, these employment clauses are often unenforceable. You can sign on to slave labor, as someone phrased it, but they may not be able to enforce it even with your signature on the line.
Obviously I have no intention of sharing his pricing lists or any kind of damaging information, so that $300 consultation gave me some real piece of mind. So that would be my recommendation.
Composite Strengthening Systems, LLC
Turnkey Design and Installation Services
Coming Fall 2012: COMPOSITE-STRENGTHENING.COM