Re: intellectual property contracts

[Sue Ellen Adkins <sea -at- NETCOM -dot- COM>]

Rather than having ANY work performed belong to the company, I think only
work done at the office or on company-assigned projects should belong to
the company.  If someone writes a best-seller mystery, why should it belong
to the employer?

Sue Ellen

Karen Lunsford wrote:
>        A member of the BIZCOM list suggested that I forward a query to you
>that
>I've received from my students.  I teach a  business & technical writing
>course, and most of my students this semester are graduating engineers (civil,
>environmental, computer, and more) or science majors (esp. biology).  I do not
>know how many students, if any, are applying for technical writing jobs per
>se,
>but they are applying to companies for whom they will create products and
>documentation.  Those offered jobs are often being asked to sign a contract
>that says that any work they do belongs to that company.  I know that this
>is a
>common practice. The question, though, is whether there are any phrases or
>clauses they should look out for that they should not agree to unwittingly.
>In some cases, students weren't entirely sure what they were being asked to
>sign (I know, you should never sign something you don't understand.)
>
>They were also concerned whether they would even have the option of
>negotiating over these contracts--their concern was that if they raised
>questions, the company might rescind the job offer.
>
>My advice to them was to ask people in their fields about these contracts and
>practices--I don't know the answers. But I'd like to learn more. Do you
>know of
>anything that students should be aware of? Do you know of any
>articles/resources I could read to learn more?
>Many thanks,
>Karen Lunsford
>klunsfor -at- uiuc -dot- edu


 Sue Ellen Adkins                 mailto:sea -at- netcom -dot- com


 From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000=