Can company give IP rights away for application I wrote off hours to a startup?

http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/162002/can-my-company-give-ip-rights-away-for-an-application-i-wrote-off-hours-to-anoth

by libria • 14 years ago

9 5 14 years ago

programmers.stackexchange.com

sambolling• 14 years ago

Please stop

ChuckMcM• 14 years ago

Short answer, hire an Intellectual Property Lawyer. Laws are different state to state, country to country.

tzs• 14 years ago

Assuming this is taking place in the US, and under the given facts, no.

For the company to own the IP, it would have to be a work for hire as defined in 17 USC 101. That requires that it be made by an employee withing the scope of his employment.

The author was an unpaid intern. Interns that are employees MUST be paid at least minimum wage under the Fair Labor Standards Act, so we may infer that the relationship in this case is not an employee relationship. Without an enployee relationship, no work for hire. (Specially commissioned works can be work for hire without an employee relationship, but only for specific kinds of works which are not applicable).

The request is even more questionable in this case because it doesn't sound like it is the COMPANY asking for the code. A director wants to give the code to his brother who has a start up in the same industry.

Personally, I'd report the company to the Department of Labor for possibly illegal internships, and I'd report that director to the other directors or owners who might not be aware that he's trying to use code their intern developed to help his brother's startup.

zio992• 14 years ago

Make it open source under BSD.

That's what I did when I was in your situation. This way, 1) You don't burn any bridges, 2) You're recognized for your work and 3) If you get other contributors to your project, your software will end up coming out on top.

zio992• 14 years ago

Oddly enough, the company ended up hiring manual labour that took 4 people and 2 weeks to do something my application did on a coffee break. Reason being - that project was assigned to another department. I guess what I'm trying to say is - not to worry, things work out for the best, and karma always comes back around.

Can company give IP rights away for application I wrote off hours to a startup?

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