Public Domain Declarations

[JLC3861%TAM...@wiscvm.wisc.edu]

Opening disclaimer: I am not a lawyer.

That said, I know someone who has worked for 30 years at places like IBM,
AT&T, DoD, Xerox, and many others. In that time he has accumulated many
work-related (i.e. employer-owned) patents and 80 patents of his own. His
advice:

1) If you have signed the section on your contract which gives invention rights
over to your employer during your term of employment you're sunk. Your
employer does have rights to your discovery (the Sears case notwithstanding)
since you have signed over the rights.

2) Federal law protects your right to your inventions in the absence of that
contract section. If you haven't signed such a provision, any inventions
you make which are not directly part of your job are yours.

3) You cannot be required to sign such a contract provision as a prerequisite
to employment. You have the right to strike out that contract section before
you sign. The fact that you struck it out cannot be held against you (i.e.
they still have to hire you).

This is, as far as I know, the state of the law in this area. Any comments
from lawyers out there?

John L. Coolidge

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[Geoff Kuenning]

In article <69...@brl-adm.ARPA> JLC3861%TAMSTAR...@wiscvm.wisc.EDU writes:

> Opening disclaimer: I am not a lawyer.

Nor I...

> 1) If you have signed the section on your contract which gives invention rights
> over to your employer during your term of employment you're sunk. Your
> employer does have rights to your discovery (the Sears case notwithstanding)
> since you have signed over the rights.

I believe that this is untrue in the state of California. My understanding
is that in California, it is impossible to sign away your rights. If you
do, that contract clause is considered invalid. You can sign away your
rights to work-related inventions, but if you develop a new ice cream flavor
while working for Apple, you own it.

Note that this is *not* true in most other states: Apple has first rights
to that ice cream flavor if you signed your rights away.
--

Geoff Kuenning ge...@ITcorp.com {hplabs,ihnp4}!trwrb!desint!geoff

[Dave Van Allen]

>
> Opening disclaimer: I am not a lawyer.

> ...

But I play one on TV.

(sorry I could'nt help it! (-: no offense, John!)

> John L. Coolidge
>

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