Employee Release Of Rights To Intellectual Property
Do we realize that the products created by many companies, nowadays, are intellectual property? All of us, who work as knowledge workers, create intellectual property through our work. |
Companies that pay employees to create such intellectual properties should protect the ownership of their properties.
It’s quite evident that the rights of any work automatically go to the creator of the work. But, under the U.S. copyright law of individuals employed by a company, the author may be the company employing the person who created the work. It goes without saying that the rights of any work created by an employee for an employer are owned automatically by the employer. This situation might differ if the creator is an independent worker.
The situation is different, however, if the programmer is an independent contractor. Unless there is a written contract transferring the copyright from the independent contractor to the company, the rights to the program belong to the programmer. The programmer may sell or lease the program to others even though the company paid for his services.
A company should always keep in mind to have a proper claim of all its intellectual properties being created by its employees. Such claims play a very important role when a company hires an independent contractor to get its work done. Ideally, a company should ask all its new employees to sign an agreement giving intellectual property rights to the company. Also, the company should get the agreement signed by its existing employees. You may not be able to get a new agreement for existing employees, hence a new agreement can be considered while promoting your employees.
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Intellectual property refers to creations of the mind: inventions, literary and artistic works, and symbols, names, images, and designs used in commerce. Intellectual property surrounds us in nearly everything we do. No matter what we do, we are surrounded by the fruits of human creativity and invention.