[Phpwm] Intellectual Property Agreements

[Dave Holmes]

If IPR is not agreed at outset then it belongs to you and not your client,
all contracts we enter into have ownership assigned to us unless explicitly
agreed in writing. This is because we have a massive code base we re-use. 

We also have a full e-commerce system which is sold as just that and not a
development job. 

The question is has the client paid? Or are they withholding payment on this
grounds.

-----Original Message-----
From: phpwm-bounces at mailman.lug.org.uk
[mailto:phpwm-bounces at mailman.lug.org.uk] On Behalf Of Bronwen Reid
Sent: 21 September 2007 11:39
To: PHP West Midlands
Subject: [Phpwm] Intellectual Property Agreements

Hi,

Anyone been in this situation?

One of my clients has asked me to provide a letter assigning them all 
ownership of the work I've done for them.

Now, I'm quite happy for them to own the application in question 
(basically a shopping cart with extra knobs and go-faster stripes), and 
I understand their concerns (what if I get a job with another company? 
what if I approach one of their competitors?) but I want to be able to 
reuse code.

There are also several paragraphs of boilerplate employee agreement 
which I've been asked to include, and am not very happy about.  For 
example, the company owns any "improvement in procedure"

"Any discovery, invention, improvement in procedure, trade mark, design 
or copyright work made, discovered or produced by you in the course of 
your employment in connection with or in any way affecting or relating 
to, or capable of being used or adapted for use in connection with, the 
business of the Company shall be disclosed to the Company straight away 
and be the absolute property of the Company."

Basically I want to say "you own the final application, I won't try and 
sell it to anyone else or take it away from you, but I can and will 
reuse techniques, code etc. in other applications for other people"

How do other people deal with this?  Anyone want to recommend a solicitor?

Bronwen

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