Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!cbnews!wbt From: wbt@cbnews.ATT.COM (William B. Thacker) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: Non-Disclosure Agreements and Rights to Invention Message-ID: <2845@cbnews.ATT.COM> Date: 3 Jan 89 14:41:14 GMT References: <6185@louie.udel.EDU> <395@laic.UUCP> Reply-To: wbt@cbnews.ATT.COM (William B. Thacker) Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories Lines: 59 In article <395@laic.UUCP> darin@nova.UUCP (Darin Johnson) writes: >In article <6185@louie.udel.EDU> DEFRANCO@radc-tops20.arpa (Carl DeFranco) writes: >>I'm not sure this discussion needs to be carried too far, but to clarify the >>position of employers (not that I agree) who require such agreements, they >>hold that any ideas developed by you while on their payroll, working in their >>facilities, using their equipment and software, is THEIRS. The Intellectual Property agreements I've signed (with three different employers) are more far-reaching than that. ANY idea the employee comes up with, whether originated at home or at work, during work hours or not, using company equipment or not, becomes the employer's property. A gracious employer, of course, will grant the the employee the rights to his idea if it is not related to company business. >This sounds fine, but... What about using the equipment on your own >time? Such as UNIX utilities/etc. which are difficult to do on your >Amy at home. Same thing; company property. In this case, the company clearly has a legitimate right to the invention, as it would have been impossible without their financial support. >So, was I wrong to post the program to USENET in the first place? Probably, yes, but your supervisor is the person to ask. Consider, among other things, that your programming may have been influenced by your experience with the company, and you might even have used some coding technique that might be considered proprietary. If your product is handy enough that Sun wants to release it, it could be a moneymaker for your company. >doesn't apply to academic sights probably). Should Lockheed own the >rights to the program, even though they didn't pay me to write it? They should have first choice. You did, after all, use their facilities, at their incurred expense. >Of course, on the bright side, I can freely give away all my Amiga >source with out worrying about big brother! (hmnn... can I give away >executables if I didn't get the 'developer' version of C?) You may want to re-read your Intellectual Property Agreement; technically, the Company may have rights to your Amiga sources, as well. The only way to be safe is to be completely up-front with your supervisor throughout the development process. Some companies are more strict than others; even using company equipment for non-work-related projects can be an infraction against the company, and could technically cost you your job. ------------------------------ valuable coupon ------------------------------- Bill Thacker att!cbnews!wbt "C" combines the power of assembly language with the flexibility of assembly language. Disclaimer: Farg 'em if they can't take a joke ! ------------------------------- clip and save --------------------------------