If you work for a corporation and you write a program on your own time, not company time, you are not compensated for your time, the Corporation after their legal department review uses your program as a mandatory education program. Who owns program.
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If you work for a corporation and you write a program on your own time, not company time, you are not compensated for your time, the Corporation after their legal department review uses your program as a mandatory education program. Who owns program.
A self defense and verbal de-escalation
program written by a martial artist on his own
time. Presented to a health care facility and
accepted by said facility for mandatory training.
No compensation for time spent received.
Asked on December 1, 2017 under Employment Labor Law, New Jersey
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 6 years ago | Contributor
The program would belong to the company if any of the following occurred or was the case:
1) The employee wrote it on company time (which you state did not occur).
2) The employee used resources, materials, equipment (including computer equipment) or information from the company to write the program.
3) The program was related to the employee's job, so even if he/she did it not write it at work and did not use company resources, etc., creating the program could be seen as part of his/her employment.
4) The employee gave the rights to the company in some way, either explictily (by signing some agreement giving them the rights to this program specifically or more generally to any program developed while employed there) or implicitly (such as by letting the company use and/or present it to others without first reserving, in writing, his or her own rights to the program--letting the company make use of it, present it to to clients, etc. without stating first the employee remained the owner and getting company agreement to that would likely be seen as giving the program to the company).
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