From: Lee Daniel Crocker (lee@piclab.com)
Date: Fri Jul 19 2002 - 13:41:54 MDT
> (Dickey, Michael F <michael_f_dickey@groton.pfizer.com>):
> "Actually it's a bit more complicated than this. Under U.S. patent
> law anything you come up with belongs by law to the company you are
> working for, and for two years after you leave."
>
> Brian, does this apply to *anything* you come up with, even if it has
> nothing to do with your job or your company?
>
> (concerned inventor)
>
> Michael
It varies. Anything you do that relates to your work, or uses any of
your employer's resources or information, is likely to be considered
a "work for hire" and belong to your employer. Most employers of
engineers also make you sign a contract that gives them rights to
anything you do on your own time as well, but some don't. Also, some
states (like California in particular) specifically refuse to enforce
such contract terms, so your own creations are yours in any case.
Music industry contracts are the worst. Not only do all the recordings
you make for your label belong to them, but /any/ recording you make
during the period of your contract (which if often for a long time)
belongs to them, whether they choose to use it or not, and they only
pay you royalties if they choose to sell them (and minimal ones at
that), and do not allow you to sell them in any other way.
Book and magazing publishers are actually pretty good. Magazines only
pay for the right of "first publication" typically, and leave the
copyright with you, and don't restrict your further rights. Some also
buy the right for /them/ to republish in collections and such. Book
publishers are a bit more restrictive in that they often want you to
agree not to publish anything that competes with their edition for some
length of time, but even they don't generally want copyrights to be
assigned to them. Nowadays it's not even hard to find a publisher that
will allow you to put your book on the net for free.
-- Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lee/> "All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past, are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sat Nov 02 2002 - 09:15:35 MST