Questions tagged [intellectual-property]
25 questions
32
votes
12 answers
Why do companies tell me they want me as an in-house employee, not as a contractor?
Context
I am looking for work as a contractor in my field of expertise and would prefer to earn less money and have less benefits working as a short-term contractor.
The problem:
Companies say I need to be an in-house employee for intellectual…
b_dev
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13
votes
4 answers
How to rewrite from scratch a code for which I own the copyright so I can use it on my job without losing the rights to the first version?
Well I don't want to make it open-source! That's the problem. But I do want to use it on my current job. Company did not agree to sign any alternative license with me and told me to rewrite everything from scratch so they will own it. :(
So how can…
chrisapotek
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11
votes
4 answers
Easter eggs as IP protection in software
I work in embedded software, and for some reason, management wants to hide an Easter egg as means of IP protection. They call it a watermark, and since our software interact with the video preview feed (the image displayed on a screen before you…
Simon Bergot
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10
votes
4 answers
Bringing your previous intellectual property to your employer
Assume that in my free time I have developed library X before signing a contract or being employed by company A.
I then sign a contract with company A and begin working. It becomes apparent that library X will be incredibly useful and save the…
James Smith
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8
votes
5 answers
Who Owns an Idea on the Web?
Let us say that person "A" mentioned an idea for a software project on the web (ie. in a forum). Person "B" sees this idea and implements it. Can person "A" claim ownership of the idea? Has person "B" done something illegal by implementing the idea…
Can't Tell
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7
votes
5 answers
Do I have to deliver my utility and helper code to clients?
Over the years I've created a bunch of Java utility and helper libraries which I just attach to new projects. Then, when I deliver code to my clients, I send all the code except for the libraries themselves (not JARs but source code files).
A…
deviDave
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6
votes
5 answers
About Intellectual-Property agreement with employer
In IP agreement IP is define as below
Intellectual Property (whether or not patentable and whether or not made during working
hours) is defined as but not limited to: all product specifications, developments, inventions, works of authorship,…
turbo
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6
votes
3 answers
Detecting Internet code leaks
I'm curious after reading today about a minor code leakage from a large project to some blogs & forums (to say it short: the guys forgot to anonymize the code before asking for help), all detected and (angrily) complained by the customer who…
usr-local-ΕΨΗΕΛΩΝ
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5
votes
2 answers
Using private vs company devices for development at work
I'm employed at a mobile app development company since 4 months as Android developer. Currently I'm using my two private Android devices for development. Is it common practice that developers use their own hardware devices for development in mobile…
Pierre Rymiortz
- 153
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4
votes
3 answers
Who owns the code, who owns the algorithm, who owns the idea?
This question got me thinking what products of the programming effort belong to the employer, and what don't.
The two extremes are (0) the code - it apparently belongs to the employer and (1) the learned personal and technical skills. But what is…
Vorac
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3
votes
5 answers
How to protect intellectual property when oursourcing software development?
I'm a small company needing to outsource software development. I've written both functional and technical specifications for GUI developers and back-end (C or PHP) developers to implement my software application. I'm a little nervous handing over…
gkdsp
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3
votes
2 answers
Intellectual Property for in house development
My company is a sub contractor on a major government contract. Over the past 5 years we've been developing in house applications to help support our company and streamline our work. Apparently in 2008 our president of the company at that time…
Kyle
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3
votes
3 answers
Does Apple own any rights to software you create with their developer tools?
Does Apple own any rights to software you create with their developer tools?
Or do you own the rights to any software you create, regardless of whether you used tools supplied by a third party?
user20042
3
votes
5 answers
When working with contractors/interns how protective should one be of your codebase?
We're considering hiring a contractor or intern to work with us on our iOS project but this causes me to get really paranoid that we're giving somebody who doesn't work for the company access to our precious codebase. I mean, I could just give them…
Shizam
- 141
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2
votes
3 answers
What are some precedents on how substantial a snippet must be to be copyrightable?
I occasionally worry that when I borrow snippets of code from websites, etc. there's at least the theoretical possibility that this will be copyright infringement. However, small pieces of code to accomplish common tasks may be too unoriginal for…
dsimcha
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