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

submitted 11 months 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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[–] VulgarVerbiage@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Patents aren't the only IP.

The source code is copyrightable. The entire software could be a trade secret (see: the Coca-Cola recipe). Any branding would be a trademark. There's plenty to own here.

[–] RossDCurrie@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

Yeah, I kind of mentioned that in my reply to his reply.

I haven't seen anywhere that he mentions it's actually software, but a lot of people seem to assume this is the case.

My initial assumption was that he's engineered a physical tool, rather than coded a piece of software, and so on the basis of it being a non-novel physical tool that already exists on the world, I asserted that there's nothing to own, from an IP perspective, aside from (as I said), the engineering templates he's developed... which in theory he could rebuild on his own time, assuming that this is a non-novel physical device that already exists in the world.

If it's software that he's built on company time... yeah, definitely some IP ownership concerns to be had there.

As far as trade secrets go, if I came by the coca cola recipe by some honest means, say by finding it in a scrapbook in the bottom of a chest of drawers that once belonged to John Pemberton's second wife, AFAIK and INAL there's nothing legally protecting it - the primary legal protection exists in the employment agreement between OP and employer. At least in my country.

Google says this may not be the case in the US, but that it still requires a novel element, which would seem to exclude this instance.

In any case, best to just open a dialogue.