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Path: utzoo!utcsrgv!dave
From: dave@utcsrgv.UUCP (Dave Sherman)
Newsgroups: net.legal
Subject: Re: Ownership of your Inventions et al.
Message-ID: <2192@utcsrgv.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 5-Sep-83 23:15:51 EDT
Article-I.D.: utcsrgv.2192
Posted: Mon Sep  5 23:15:51 1983
Date-Received: Tue, 6-Sep-83 01:11:50 EDT
References: <229@bunkerb.UUCP>, <412@pyuxll.UUCP>
Organization: The Law Society of Upper Canada, Toronto
Lines: 23

Ned Horvath (pyuxll!ech) states:

>>>The way the agreement must be interpreted, in any court of law, is that
>>>the company owns what they pay you to develop.  Period.  The recent
>>>question on net.legal from the person who developed software on their
>>>own home computer on their own time actually has a very clear answer:
>>>the company has no claim whatever, would almost certainly not attempt
>>>to press such a claim in court, and would CERTAINLY lose the case if it did.

In many cases, that may be right. But it is dangerous to make such
blanket statements. Remember, you are signing a contract. In the absence
of other factors, you are bound by the contract. Other factors such as
inequality of bargaining power, unreasonableness of the clause, etc.,
*MAY* work to make a clause invalid or unenforceable. But don't go
around saying "the company has no claim whatsoever". If you've put
your signature to a piece of paper that SAYS they have a claim, then
they have a claim. Whether it stands up in court is another matter.

Dave Sherman
The Law Society of Upper Canada
Toronto
-- 
 {allegra,cornell,floyd,ihnp4,linus,utzoo,uw-beaver,watmath}!utcsrgv!lsuc!dave