New answers tagged intellectual-property
2
Here is now this type of situation typically rolls out:
The developer provides all available written documentation supporting the proposition that he owns all rights.
If the other party is concerned about any holes, the other party provides additional documents and asks the developer to have them signed by the relevant individuals or entities.
Irrespective ...
3
Typically they would just want a document admitting in writing that you in fact do own all of the IP and that should their be any IP infringement the penalty / punishment will be on you.
Assuming you wrote all of the code and any open source code you used were released under MIT or some license that allows you to write commercial software based on it ...
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Alas you've hit the Golden Rule - he who has the gold makes the rules.
Firstly, depending on jurisdiction, getting a govt grant may be really really difficult as in places such as China (not so sure about India) access to capital is based on connections. So if this is the case, what is being monetarised is their contacts not your time. If this is not the ...
1
Steve gives the correct legal answer, but setting that aside, I'd ask you what is your obligation to the guy paying your salary? Obligation has many different aspects, moral, professional even societal expectation. In the West we have duty to render performance. However I have observed other countries where employee loyalty is so scarce it's past the ...
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The answer depends in part on your jurisdiction and in part on your contract, written or implied, with your employer, and maybe on the contracts between the other parties, which you may not be aware of (exclusivity clauses, etc).
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As a programmer, we have generic code all the time - its usually the technical glue that holds a program together and allows it to work without actually being a program in itself. Think of a website - the web server is 'generic code', and nothing to do with the website code. The dev might want to take his equivalent of a webserver, or parts thereof, away ...
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If I work for a software company and write a novel that is published. Can the software company claim they ownership of the novel and take all the profits? Could they legally force me to sit down and type up any ideas I have in my head about the novel and claim ownership of it?
So if I work for a software company that is basically a big contracting company ...
4
The developer has no problem assigning the code, however, he won't assign it unless we give him the rights to re-use some of what he calls "generic" code.
You need to clarify what "generic" and "reuse" means.
It would seem that the core issue here isn't that the developer has discovered a novel, groundbreaking approach that will generate millions and ...
3
Before this point, he was your good partner and now he wants something which puts your business at risk (at least you see it in that way). I work with programmers, they tend to reuse their code whenever possible. You don't need to be a programmer to know how copy/paste feels good. Also this is the only guarantee he has for his effort (he is not paid for that ...
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I think you are about to commit a big mistake if not already committed. There are many great inventions forgotten due to weak execution. You cant just build a factory, so that you build everything that can be built out of your invention. Yes you dont give it to big evil companies, but you are likely to end up with a product that has a patented thing that is ...
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If he has had it on his servers and if you havent signed a contract and the developer is still asking you if he can keep some generic code, I would just the fella keep it. Of course, you could make an agreement about the generic code and how if he ever makes money from it, he should pay you royalty et cetera. In reality, it is almost extremely difficult to ...
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First of all don't consider investors as brainless money men. Most of them have high business skills and good market and government connections (at their industry). Since they think more financial than emotional, you can buy back their equity at any time if your offer seems good to them.
If you are not certain about details and how much does your Rolls ...
3
If there's nothing signed, you're on very squishy ground and you should consult with an attorney asap.
If there's an NDA in place, that doesn't evaporate if you don't include him.. unless the agreement says otherwise. If it says he can't talk about the project elsewhere, then he can't. You just have to be willing to back it up because a contract without ...
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IANAL and I don't know what rules/conventions apply in your jurisdiction.
However, if it is truly "generic", it shouldn't take him long to re-create it in his own time.
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If you have paid for everything to date then you still own 100% of your company. Given what you have outlined, I would spit-ball the current, pre-money valuation of your company at $1,000,000 which would mean the $2,000,000 investment is worth 66% of the company.
The $1,000,000 is what I call "the magic number" It's high enough that you are rewarded ...
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