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Brad Jensen wrote:
>>I assume tech writeres are the same way, if you are a salaried
employee everything you write (whether it is on 9 to 5 time or
not) belongs to your employer unless oyu have an explicit
agreement that exempts your outside efforts. On the other hand, if
you are a contractor, what you write belongs to you unless you
explicitly contract that right away.<<
I have just got my contract of employment (moving from contract to
permanent work at the same company) and noted that the intellectual
property section requires everything I do while employed by my company to
become the property of the company.
I do a fair bit of writing outside the company. It's unrelated to the work
I do *for* the company (not even in the same ocean, let alone the same
boat).
I don't use company property (I have my own computer), I don't do it
inside my working hours, and I don't do it on company premises. I'm fairly
sure that if I showed what I write to the management they would agree that
my company has no reason to claim it, but I don't want to have to do that:
I just want what I write on my own equipment, in my own time, to belong to
*me*. Not a lawyer, not expecting legal advice from this list, just
wondering: is it worthwhile rocking the boat to have them change that
clause, or just leave it be and rely on it being highly unlikely that the
company would deem my own work worth claiming and if they tried I can't
see how they could win? (I live in the UK, but as I said, not asking for
legal advice...)
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