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Topic: Employed by a company, is it worth my while? (Read 1250 times) |
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JimIvey
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Posts: 2584
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Re: Employed by a company, is it worth my while?
« Reply #5 on: Mar 12th, 2005, 10:38am » |
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I honestly don't have any answer for this thread -- owning IP is very different from creating IP (which is more accurately what I do). However, I have a counter-perspective to offer:
How many inventors/engineers/etc. out there read their employment contracts before signing them?
If I had $10 for every inventor who wondered, after the fact, what their rights were vis-a-vis a current or former employer and I paid $1,000 for every prospective employee who read their contract first and balked at signing because of overly heavy-handed terms vis-a-vis ownership of ideas, I suspect I'd be a very wealthy man.
Regards.
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James D. Ivey
Law Offices of James D. Ivey
http://www.iveylaw.com
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JimIvey
Moderator
Senior Member
Posts: 2584
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Re: Employed by a company, is it worth my while?
« Reply #6 on: Mar 13th, 2005, 7:03pm » |
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Like I said, this is way outside what I do, but I believe employee files are required to be accessible to the employees themselves -- i.e., you're allowed to see your own file. Whether you can make copies of the contents is something I'm not as clear on. However, any contract which forbids one of the parties to keep a copy seems to have a bit of a problem passing the sniff test -- it has to not reek of unfairness to be enforceable.
In addition, employee-employer law is generally a matter of state law, so the state you worked in matters. Each state has its own view of who ought to have more choices and protections in employment relationships -- so exactly what clauses are reasonable and enforceable vary from state to state.
And, yes, the theory is that you always have the option to not sign the agreement and work elsewhere. The theory is that, if enough top quality workers refuse to sign such agreements, they can negotiate or the employer will not ask from such sweeping ownership rights of ideas. These theories are quite sound if you agree with the conservative capitalistic assumptions of perfect knowledge (you know exactly what you're signing and its true legal effect -- and you know of all your options elsewhere) and no barriers to entry (switching jobs is easy and involves no cost to you). With those assumptions firmly in place, there would be true competition and there would be no need for a government. I believe that knowledge of market players is far from perfect (not even really "good" or "sufficient" most of the time) and I perceive substantial costs in changing jobs -- for just about everybody.
Anyway, I hope that helps. Maybe someone else here has recently peeked into the issue of employment contracts with respect to IP ownership and what limits there are, if any, to what an employer can claim ownership.
Regards.
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| « Last Edit: Mar 13th, 2005, 7:04pm by JimIvey » |
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James D. Ivey
Law Offices of James D. Ivey
http://www.iveylaw.com
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George
Newbie
Chinese Patent Attorney
Posts: 21
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Re: Employed by a company, is it worth my while?
« Reply #7 on: Mar 28th, 2005, 10:44pm » |
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on Mar 13th, 2005, 7:03pm, JimIvey wrote:Like I said, this is way outside what I do, but I believe employee files are required to be accessible to the employees themselves -- i.e., you're allowed to see your own file. Whether you can make copies of the contents is something I'm not as clear on. However, any contract which forbids one of the parties to keep a copy seems to have a bit of a problem passing the sniff test -- it has to not reek of unfairness to be enforceable.
In addition, employee-employer law is generally a matter of state law, so the state you worked in matters. Each state has its own view of who ought to have more choices and protections in employment relationships -- so exactly what clauses are reasonable and enforceable vary from state to state.
And, yes, the theory is that you always have the option to not sign the agreement and work elsewhere. The theory is that, if enough top quality workers refuse to sign such agreements, they can negotiate or the employer will not ask from such sweeping ownership rights of ideas. These theories are quite sound if you agree with the conservative capitalistic assumptions of perfect knowledge (you know exactly what you're signing and its true legal effect -- and you know of all your options elsewhere) and no barriers to entry (switching jobs is easy and involves no cost to you). With those assumptions firmly in place, there would be true competition and there would be no need for a government. I believe that knowledge of market players is far from perfect (not even really "good" or "sufficient" most of the time) and I perceive substantial costs in changing jobs -- for just about everybody.
Anyway, I hope that helps. Maybe someone else here has recently peeked into the issue of employment contracts with respect to IP ownership and what limits there are, if any, to what an employer can claim ownership.
Regards. |
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Hi, JimIvey,
I do not know much about US law system.
How is the US law applied to this situation?
For example, Mr. J has his brother fill a patent in other countries other than US, then the brother transfer the right to Mr.J. Then Mr. J file an application in US by claiming proirity. In this situation, does USPTO actually checks who is the real inventor? If not, that would be a good alternative for Mr. J to handle this trouble.
George
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JimIvey
Moderator
Senior Member
Posts: 2584
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Re: Employed by a company, is it worth my while?
« Reply #8 on: Mar 29th, 2005, 12:57am » |
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on Mar 28th, 2005, 10:44pm, George wrote:| does USPTO actually checks who is the real inventor? |
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Usual they don't, as far as I know. However, it seems fairly likely that inventorship and the naming of the wrong inventor will come up during litigation. Such would render the patent, and all its claims, invalid.
In addition, the brother would have to sign a declaration under oath. Lying is punishable by fine (money) and/or imprisonment.
Accordingly, I don't recomment that particular strategy.
Regards.
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IP Logged |
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James D. Ivey
Law Offices of James D. Ivey
http://www.iveylaw.com
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George
Newbie
Chinese Patent Attorney
Posts: 21
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Re: Employed by a company, is it worth my while?
« Reply #9 on: Mar 29th, 2005, 6:10pm » |
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on Mar 29th, 2005, 12:57am, JimIvey wrote:
Usual they don't, as far as I know. However, it seems fairly likely that inventorship and the naming of the wrong inventor will come up during litigation. Such would render the patent, and all its claims, invalid.
In addition, the brother would have to sign a declaration under oath. Lying is punishable by fine (money) and/or imprisonment.
Accordingly, I don't recomment that particular strategy.
Regards. |
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Thanks, JimIvey.
However, what if the brother (or any friend of Mr.J) lives in other country where the US law can not be applied to investigate/fine/punish anybody?
Is it an alternative to surround US patent law system although it is not decent?
George
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