[Wolves] GPL, IP and patents..

[David Goodwin]

Lee Parkes wrote:
> Hi,
> The company I work for has recently seen fit to amend all of our contracts and
> get us to sign them agreeing to some new conditions. The bit I'm worried about
> regards the fact that they own my ass 24x7 and anything I do AT ANY TIME EVEN
> ON MY OWN EQUIPMENT, belongs to them. Now we use all Open Source, Free Software
> stuff other than the network equipment. I get the impression that if my
> employer tried to patent anything that falls under the jurisdiction of the GPL
> then they could get themselves in hot water. I also disagree, very strongly,
> with the idea that they own any ideas/inventions/whatever that I come up with
> even in my own time.
> 

My ex-University attempted to do a similar thing with it's students. 
Unfortunately opinion was quite split between various academics and 
legal people as to whether such a policy was enforceable, mainly because 
students were not paid employees of the University (in fact the reverse 
is really true... students pay the University!).


I seem to remember that when I worked at Compaq (2000-2001) the contract 
I signed sounded similar to the one you described above.


thanks,
David