Path: utzoo!mnetor!tmsoft!dptcdc!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!ukma!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!ULKYVX.BITNET!DFJOHN01
From: DFJOHN01@ULKYVX.BITNET (GMAIL_FLAG_PERSONAL_NAME)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Rigid Mac Programmer's Employee Agreement - Help!!
Message-ID: <8906101404.AA09781@jade.berkeley.edu>
Date: 10 Jun 89 13:31:00 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: University of Louisville
Lines: 52

Greetings.

I am hopefully about to become employed by a very fast growing Macintosh
software development firm and need some advise FAST. I received the Employee
Agreement in the mail, and had problems with only one section of the
Agreement. That section is presented below:

 Property of Company:  All ideas, inventions, discoveries, proprietary
information, know-how, processes and other developments and, more
specifically improvements to existing inventions, conceived by the
Employee, alone or with others, during the term of the Employee's
employment, whether or not during working hours and whether or not while
working on a specific project, that are within the scope of the Company's
business operations or that relate to any Company work or projects, are and
shall remain the exclusive property of the Company. Inventions, improvements
and discoveries relating to the business of the Company conceived or made
by the Employee, either alone or with others, while employed by or within
one year following termination of employment with the Company are
conclusively and irrebutably presumed to have been made during the period
of employment and are the sole property of the Company. The Employee shall
promptly disclose in writing any such matters to the Company but to no
other person without the Company's consent. The Employee hereby assigns and
agrees to assign all right, title, and interest in and to such matters to
the Company, execute such assignments or other instruments and assist the
Company in the obtaining, at the Company's sole expense, of any patents,
trademarks or similar protection, if available, in the name of the Company.


Okay. Does this mean that I will have to simply result to consulting for any
outside income? Or, if I develop a software application that has little, or
preferably nothing, to do with the Company's business I can without risk
distribute this application as I see fit; specifically commercial, shareware
and public domain.

If there do seem to be conflicts in my outside interests and the Company's,
how can I tactfully negotiate this issue without losing my chance for
employment.

Is this aspect of an Employee Agreement common in the software development
realm?

This is my first time facing such rigid guidelines and any and all help will
be very much appreciated. Please reply quickly as I must make a decision soon.

Sincerely,
David F. Johnson
BITNET   : DFJOHN01@ULKYVX
INTERNET : dfjohn01%ulkyvx.bitnet@cunyvm.edu
UUCP     : ...psuvax!ulkyvx.bitnet!dfjohn01

Obviously, the statements herein do NOT reflect my employers neither present,
past nor future.