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From: minow@decvax.UUCP (Martin Minow)
Newsgroups: net.legal
Subject: Re: Intellectual property agreements with an employer
Message-ID: <383@decvax.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 20-Feb-84 21:33:11 EST
Article-I.D.: decvax.383
Posted: Mon Feb 20 21:33:11 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 21-Feb-84 04:46:14 EST
References: <349@bnl.UUCP>
Organization: DEC UNIX Engineering Group
Lines: 27

The Swedish Engineer's trade union negotiated a general-purpose
intellectual property agreement with the employeer's federation
which, as I remember it, divided "inventions" into three classes:

1. things which directly pertain to your job function:  the employeer
   owns these outright.

2. things which are part of the employeer's business, but which
   are distinct from your job function.  (For example, you work
   on transistors and invent a disk drive head positioner.)
   You must report these to your employeer, who is obligated
   to pay you the going rate for the invention if bought outside.
   Your employeer does get first refusal.

3. things separate from the employeer's business.  (As above, but
   you invent a new fishing reel.)  You own it outright.

One thing in the quoted agreement that seemed new was a phrase
"anything developed using your employeer's resources."  This
would suggest that if you hack a computer game on the weekend,
it would be the employeer's property.  (And they could sue
you for misuse of computer time.)  Or, am I being paranoid?

Happy hacking.

Martin Minow
decvax!minow