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I want to try selling something I've made but my employer may 'own' it (alien.top)

submitted 2 years ago by crediblezephyre@alien.top to c/entrepreneur@indiehackers.space

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Over the last few months, I've spent a fair amount of time building a tool that I'm reasonably certain I can sell (nothing novel, don't get too excited) and I would really like to try. I know there is a customer base and I know it's useful... because I built it to use myself. But I also plan to use it at work, that's half the reason I built it. In fact, most of the company templates are just mine that I brought with me when I was hired.

While 90% of the time I spent building it was in the evenings, on my 'own' time... perhaps 10% of it was 'company' time where I had free time and spent it building this tool.

I'm 90% certain that my employee contract states any 'inventions' created are owned by the company, which is pretty standard in my industry. So I have a few questions:

Does my employer own this tool? (I know you aren't lawyers, but maybe someone has insight?)
What is the risk of selling it anyway? What happens if I sell it and use it at work?
How do I find a clear path forward (without hiring a lawyer. This is practically hobby-tier, I don't want to take it that far)

Posting from alt account because I'm paranoid and want to retain anonymity JIC

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[–] lxivbit@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago

If you know there is a market, and the market is big enough to be more than ramen profitable, then you should pursue this. If it is truly only hobby-tier, (e.g. less than your rent/month) don't risk your job for that.

There are two comments of yours that conflict:

> While 90% of the time I spent building it was in the evenings, on my 'own' time... perhaps 10% of it was 'company' time where I had free time and spent it building this tool.

and

> I did this on my PC though and haven't used it at work yet (but will need to soon so that's why I'm asking)

If you did this on your own PC and it hasn't touched any of their hardware (compute or network), you are probably good to go. You should create an LLC and set it up as a SaaS and then ask your bosses if you can purchase a license to use at work. And then ensure that you never work on it on their hardware or network. If any of it was built on their hardware or network... don't pursue at all.

All companies that have the "anything invented here is ours" policy also have a "prior art" form that you can fill out and say, this was mine before I arrived. You will need to let them know that you forgot to fill that out because you didn't think your prior work was going to be needed, but now that you see that it is needed, you need to fill out the form.

But before going doing anything, as everyone else has said, talk to a lawyer.