Patents and intellectual property

Question

A colleague of mine made an assertion that "your employer owns all patents that you file while an employee". Is this accurate?

For example:
Suppose I'm an employee of company xyz where I make widgets of type "w". In my spare time I make widgets of type "t" as a hobby. I do not use any resources from company xyz at all for my hobby. Also the widget types are completely different. For example w could be lawn mower wheels and t could be sliding door frames (so I'm not using any skills learned from my employment at company xyz when making widgets of type t). If I were to file and receive a patent for widgets of type t would company xyz have any rights/ownership to this at all?

Answer 1

It depends somewhat on your employment contract.

But if you have 100% full proof that you did not in fact use any resources from company XYZ (which is nearly impossible since you could have been using company time to think/design) then you might have a feasible legal case to contest this.

Answer 2

Ask a lawyer, not other developers.

...that being said, if you didn't sign anything assigning all your work to your employer then you should still own what you create outside of the office. If the patent is being filed for something you created at work, then there's a good chance the company owns it.

Answer 3

It depends on your contract.

Usually (but not always and not everywhere) your employer owns anything that was done as a direct result of your job description, or, was created because of a direct instruction from your boss.

So if you work in a brewery and invent a beer that makes you irresitable to girls the brewery company can make it good case that its thiers.

If on the other hand you invent a beer that makes you irresitable to girls while you are working for an artificial limb manufacturer its probably belongs to you and your employer ....

Answer 4

If you really are filing a patent, you'll be retaining a lawyer anyway, so of course you'll show them your contract.

That said: I'm confident your colleague is wrong. I've never seen (or even heard of) a contract which even comes close to such language.

Answer 5

As many other people have indicated it depends on intellectual property clause in your employment contract or the intellectual property agreement that you signed at the beginning of your employment.

There are companies that make you sign over the rights of anything that you develop during your employment over to them whether on company time or not. There are even companies that claim ownership of future inventions in the area in which you work. When choosing an employer you should choose carefully if you want to pursue things on your own time.

In general many agreements (such as mine) cover works developed on company time, as well as related work. So if you work on databases at work and you come up with a database invention on your own time your employer may have claim to your work based on it being related to your job function.

However the law is fuzzy. I recommend retaining an attorney that specializes in intellectual property and has another partner that specializes in employment contracts. Patents are expensive and you should be willing to shell out some serious cash...because after all your patent is original, awesome and world changing. In any case your employer can always sue you saying that you violated your employment contract, whether you actually did or not.

No right answers. But when looking for your lawyer look for one with good references.