this post was submitted on 28 Nov 2023
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Asklemmy
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I used to work for a startup that laid claim to all "ideas" that I had, in or out of working hours, during my period of employment with them.
That's relatively common... if the company isn't full of dick bags you can usually get specific carve-outs. Nobody gives a shit about the game you're programming on the side - they're just unfamiliar with corporate espionage laws and being overly defensive.
At EOD any real lawsuit is going to pretty much ignore any NDA that isn't hyperspecific. I mentioned in another comment that I signed an NDA preventing me from disclosing the contents and parties in another NDA... that's highly fucking enforceable, and it's necessary because normally surface level information about contracts aren't considered secret knowledge. But all the ones we programmers sign are nearly completely horseshit - not because you can freely violate it, but because disclosing proprietary business practices is already illegal unless explicitly allowed.
Funny story but that's how the patent law works in Germany and I believe at least Japan aswell. I don't know about other places but I wouldn't be surprised if this applied to the majority of the industrialised world.
If you come up with an idea that could be patented while employed, you must to tell your employer about it and offer it to them. In return, they must either register it themselves and give you an appropriate compensation or decline ownership of it; allowing you to register it yourself.
Rationale behind that, if you work in i.e. IT and invent an IT-related thing after you've clocked out for the day, you probably wouldn't have had the idea if you hadn't spent the majority of your day working on the topic for a couple years.
I think this is actually quite fair as, even if the company decides to keep it for themselves, it'd register, use, license and defend the patent for you (for a great cut of course).
I might have forgot it coming through the doors at work.
Fuck that logic <3
Edit: I'd guess the law was made by employers so the loopholes must be plenty to spin the compensation for low level staff enough to justify giving 1% or something from the patent revenue.
I had the same thing. It was an otherwise very interesting short term contract that I really wanted to do. I had a spare time project that I was already working on though. I ended up taking it and pausing my side project until the contract finished. One of the more ridiculous things it said was something like 'no inspiration you have during the contract validity may be monetized'.
That's what finally convinced me to release it later as Copyleft, not because I thought they would come after me but because patent law can get fecked.
I also met my wife on a gig where we both signed NDAs with non-fraternization clauses.