RE: UKNM: RE: Taking your baby to the boss

[Ben Hunt]

A couple of things to look out for here, (speaking strictly from a lay

point-of-view, and may be shooting very wide, but here goes):


Check your contract of employment for a clause relating to 'inventions' or

suchlike. It may state that the intellectual property of any such inventions

etc. remain the property of the company if you were to leave.


If so, you need to consider when the development on your site was actually

carried out. If you are employed on a salaried basis, it's my understanding

that it is most likely that anything produced during your employed hours are

the property of your employer. If you were paid on an hourly basis, then the

ownership is much more open for debate, according to the terms of your

contract.


In the case that you did all the development at work, you may be rogered on

that score, but remember that it may be in your employer's interests not to

shaft you over, particularly if there's still valuable information locked in

your head. It could be bad PR for them to half-inch your brainchild, unless

of course they see that they aren't doing that cos it's totally their legal

property.


: )b


Ben Hunt

Producer

Poulternet

ben [dot] huntpoulternet [dot] com

www.poulternet.com

0113 383 4200

direct: 285 6469


-----Original Message-----

From: cuppa [

cuppaf9 [dot] co [dot] uk (mailto:cuppaf9 [dot] co [dot] uk)

]

Sent: 25 September 2000 20:01

To:

uk-netmarketingmail [dot] chinwag [dot] com

Subject: UKNM: RE: Taking your baby to the boss



Hi all


I wonder if anyone has first or third hand experience of something like

this.


You work for a company serving telecom operators. And wholly in your spare

time (really!) you develop a home page that you fondly imagine might become

a

´"big thing" sometime - but anyway it helps you do your day job a little

better.


It grows like topsy and becomes a resource for people who might have paid my

employers for this information. It starts getting quite a few visitors, all

from high profile companies my employers would like to do business with.

(Even

a top 20 listing on Yahoo! "3g UMTS" = key words)


I say to my boss -"... have look, what do think ?".

"Bloody good, let´s fold it in our (company) web site".

"S´cuse me. This is mine. And we can talk about how your company could take

an

interest in mine". :-)

A moment of silence.

Then "..lets talk about it tomorrow" - the chat never happens.

In fact the next day, my employer´s lawyers are crawling over my web site.

The weekend and today has come and gone. My boss has been silent.


Question: Should I be worried? Any advice welcomed. Interested in hearing of

anyone else that has effectively given their employers first refusal on a

dot.com idea/protoype. What happened next ?


Thanks

Steve


the3Gportal.com (my web site) and not my employers (ha!)


There is no proprietary info from my employers or gathered during my day job

on the site, btw.



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