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Author Topic:   Question about job offer
NoNukes
Inactive Member


(3)
Message 16 of 19 (759347)
06-10-2015 5:00 PM
Reply to: Message 3 by coffee_addict
06-10-2015 10:45 AM


I've been talking with my current boss. He and I are close and we talk about everything professionally and personally. He's been using my software at his office and so far he really likes it. He's been advising me to retain all the rights to this software as it could be very profitable in the future.
As an intellectual property attorney, alarm bells go off when I read stories like this.
My first question is, whether you are 100% sure that you own the software and that it is not a work for hire by your current employer. If you are an employee, the copyright for works you create in the scope of employment belong to your employer. If you additionally are a salaried employee, then 'within the scope of your employment' can be a include time after hours and at your home. Read your contract and your employee manuals.
ABE: But work for hire works outside of contract law. Reading your contract won't be enough.
Your boss does not seem to think the company owns your software, but if your boss is not an officer of the company, your boss does not have the authority to speak for the company on this issue.
Assuming you navigate through that quagmire...
After that, you need to decide whether or not you want to sell all or part of your rights your new company. If you do, your new company would benefit from a clean determination of your rights with respect to your old company. If your UI design does indeed suck, maybe you can make more money via some kind of partnership with you.
Beware of your contract and the employee manual. If you are not being asked to make declarations about intellectual property that you already own in the face of the new employers knowledge of same, that should raise a flag.
Also, make sure none of your companies internal policies have crept into the 'business logic' of your software. Some of those things may be trade secrets, and you are not authorized to disclose those.
I've been in a position like yours at least with regards to creating some useful software at work. However when I left my old engineering job, the company eventually ceased to use my software, and I went to a new job in a completely different field of work. Haven't even looked at the software in something like ten years.
Edited by NoNukes, : trade secrets
Edited by NoNukes, : No reason given.
Edited by NoNukes, : No reason given.

Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also in prison. Thoreau: Civil Disobedience (1846)
History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people. Martin Luther King
If there are no stupid questions, then what kind of questions do stupid people ask? Do they get smart just in time to ask questions? Scott Adams

This message is a reply to:
 Message 3 by coffee_addict, posted 06-10-2015 10:45 AM coffee_addict has not replied

  
xongsmith
Member
Posts: 2578
From: massachusetts US
Joined: 01-01-2009
Member Rating: 6.8


(1)
Message 17 of 19 (759355)
06-10-2015 6:09 PM


What worries me is that you may have already let the cat out of the bag in the interview.
- nate

Replies to this message:
 Message 18 by coffee_addict, posted 06-10-2015 7:30 PM xongsmith has not replied

  
coffee_addict
Member (Idle past 477 days)
Posts: 3645
From: Indianapolis, IN
Joined: 03-29-2004


(1)
Message 18 of 19 (759364)
06-10-2015 7:30 PM
Reply to: Message 17 by xongsmith
06-10-2015 6:09 PM


quote:
What worries me is that you may have already let the cat out of the bag in the interview.
I'm pretty sure they knew about the software. I'd been showing off to random people at various engineers seminars. One of their recruiters just came out of no where and asked for my resume. I'm a private person. I don't just have my resume out there for the world to see. So, they must have known me from somewhere to have approached me in the first place.
And during the interview the hiring manager asked me to demo the software to him and 2 of their project managers. I'm pretty sure they were aware of it.
Regarding my current company, I'm pretty sure they don't care about it, considering they outright rejected it when my boss and I proposed to have it as an LOB for the company. This was back when I was nave and was ready to just start letting people in the company use it for free.
Besides, they're a bunch of old men who still use hammer and chisel with stone tablets to communicate with each other. I'm pretty sure they've no concept of intellectual property. If they can't see it or hold it, then it doesn't exist.
Added by edit.
I am now officially in the new company's system. That was fast. I have an email and everything. Also got an order on the way for an iphone 6 and one of those laptops made of titanium that the military uses.
Edited by coffee_addict, : No reason given.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 17 by xongsmith, posted 06-10-2015 6:09 PM xongsmith has not replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 19 by 1.61803, posted 06-11-2015 11:16 AM coffee_addict has not replied

  
1.61803
Member (Idle past 1504 days)
Posts: 2928
From: Lone Star State USA
Joined: 02-19-2004


Message 19 of 19 (759430)
06-11-2015 11:16 AM
Reply to: Message 18 by coffee_addict
06-10-2015 7:30 PM


Sweet. You in like Flynn.

"You were not there for the beginning. You will not be there for the end. Your knowledge of what is going on can only be superficial and relative" William S. Burroughs

This message is a reply to:
 Message 18 by coffee_addict, posted 06-10-2015 7:30 PM coffee_addict has not replied

  
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