Text 371, 61 rader
Skriven 2006-11-02 00:10:30 av Bob Jones (1:343/41.0)
    Kommentar till text 369 av Gene Buckle (144.muffin)
Ärende: "No comment."
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 GB> Wow.  It blows my mind that a corporation would think 
 GB> it could own what you
 GB> created on your own time, in your own home, on your own hardware.  I
 GB> seriously hope that you're charging all that you can.

Engineers tend to get hit with interesting IP agreements being requested.  As I
said, most don't really read what they sign.  For years, these agreements
technically have given the corporations first crack at any patents one might
want to submit.....  And most try to control what you can do outside the job,
since as an engineer you are thinking about the issues even outside the job... 
at least if there is some money the corporation could make off it ... or if you
could be consider starting something independantly that could be considered to
compete with the corporation....  If one wanted to take them on with a lawyer,
one could probably win on a number of items....  But, that is costly, and not
something I'm going to deal with for GNU licensed software support....

 GB> I'd make a really rotten contract programmer.  I'd 
 GB> laugh for 20 minutes and
 GB> then tell them to fix it or go pound sand. :)  But that's just me.  I'm a
 GB> jerk like that. *grin*

That will depend on your employment and financial situation.....  Sept. 11 had
an negative impact on the industry I was in, which was starting a decline
before that date.  Things have now rebound.....  I almost didn't get hired on
that contract due to my attempt at negotiating needed changes, and I was
needing to get back to work....  I'm in a better position now....  And with
more knowledge on where to go with it....

As I said, very few read and think through the paperwork they get handed to
sign concerning IP rights......  Next round I have a better idea on how to
handle it.....  Most agreements want to cover past, current employment and up
to 1 to 5 years past employment in order to protect the corporation's IP..... 
When you work on the engineering of R&D projects being brought to market, the
corporations don't want someone who will jump ship and get a competor to market
first....  I'm one of the few who actually does list past items that I claim IP
rights on as part of the standard disclosure.....  And some of what I list is
technically stuff I own copyright to (per current copyright law) even though it
has no real use under a given agreement, other than to protect my rights.... 
Technically, even this message (since it is in written form) is covered under
current copyright law.....  The fact that I post it to a fidonet echo is giving
the needed permission to "copy" within that limited set of distribution....  

Let's see, there's one patent that was applied for with my name (along with a
few other names) that I believe I can now drop from what I list, since the
corporation that applied for it went bankrupt and the patent application
finally was dropped due to lack of money.....  That particular industry we had
about a three to five year lead on the technology, along with a very basic
patent in hand....  I've now seen (several years later) others bring to market
what we had in limited (beta) testing....  So, if you are going to get into
certain fields, especially the engineering to bring a new product or concept to
market, you will get hit up for some sort of agreement....  And the implication
of the agreements with larger corporations is generaly broader than with
smaller companies.....  The smaller companies usually will allow better editing
of the agreement than the larger companies..... 

Take care.....

Bob Jones, 1:343/41

--- Maximus/2 3.01
 * Origin: Top Hat 2 BBS (1:343/41)