Contracting while on payroll

Did you check to see if you signed anything when you were hired that says anything you build that is related to your job the company will have the rights to it?

quote:

---

How would you monetize it with your work? Licensing? Monthly subscription? I think they’re assuming I’m going to give it to them since I’m a good employee, but frick that.

---

Well if you're showing it to your employer and/or using it in your current paid work for said employer, you might find yourself in a pickle. Using the phase "all our emergency operations" seems like you are intending to use it as part of your job.

If you are intending to market this outside of your employment, why does your employer even know about it? If your intent is to sell this to your current employer outside of your job duties, have you even discussed this with your employer?

As other posters have said you need to read any agreements you signed at hire.

Not enough detail here really to offer any meaningful advice.

Did you ever work on this project during company hours or use the company’s computers/devices to develop it?

quote:

---

Did you ever work on this project during company hours or use the company’s computers/devices to develop it

---

No, I built it while taking a week off in another city on my personal computer.

Based on the post and the plans to monetize via app. I wouldn't quit my day job.

If you are planning to sell this app to your employer, I wouldn't even try

quote:

---

and I thought if I made something that fixed the problem they would value me.

---

That would make sense if you made it for them and gave it to them. You want to sell it to them. They won’t like that

quote:

---

You are most likely fricked. You probably signed away the rights to anything you create on the first day that you worked for that company.

---

I don’t know how many times I can say I didn’t sign away any right I had to anything I create on my free time.

But thanks for multiple posts of you probably signed something and are fricked.

I did something very similar. Designed everything on my Christmas vacation. Never used any company time or resources, etc. A buddy from work eventually helped develop it but not on company time.

I wanted to go through the proper channels and did everything I was supposed to. The company I work for and the documents I signed basically say they own any patentable IP. Programs are generally not patentable. You can copyright the code but that’s about it.

They still said “umm, no… this belongs to us”. I used their own rule book to show it didn’t. They still didn’t want to give it up. It took a year and nine months of me knowing their rules better than they did to get “their rights” officially signed over.

Figure out if you signed anything first. The other guy that helped develop it never signed anything. They still said “but it’s implied”. Which is BS.

They will probably fight you for it because they can. DO NOT use it at work because this will bolster that claim.

As far as the product, use a subscription model. Roll out improvements, etc as part of the package. Our stuff is really very simple but powerful software. We’ve done pretty good but I think the next year or two is going to be great.

Edit…

You could do something like this, you could set up a free 3 year use license for your current employer for the release of ALL IP rights to you. Right now, all you have is a proof of concept. You will need customer feedback and user data to bake a bulletproof market ready product. We spent a year finding issues, etc.

quote:

---

I did something very similar. Designed everything on my Christmas vacation. Never used any company time or resources, etc. A buddy from work eventually helped develop it but not on company time. I wanted to go through the proper channels and did everything I was supposed to. The company I work for and the documents I signed basically say they own any patentable IP. Programs are generally not patentable. You can copyright the code but that’s about it. They still said “umm, no… this belongs to us”. I used their own rule book to show it didn’t. They still didn’t want to give it up. It took a year and nine months of me knowing their rules better than they did to get “their rights” officially signed over. Figure out if you signed anything first. The other guy that helped develop it never signed anything. They still said “but it’s implied”. Which is BS. They will probably fight you for it because they can. DO NOT use it at work because this will bolster that claim. As far as the product, use a subscription model. Roll out improvements, etc as part of the package. Our stuff is really very simple but powerful software. We’ve done pretty good but I think the next year or two is going to be great.

---

Thank you. I haven’t used it at work and this is about to be our busy season which is why I wanted to get some opinions.

Not looking to get rich, but seeing as I just won a semi fight to get compensated for the other work I was doing I just wanted to make sure I didn’t keep giving stuff away for free.