[Wolves] GPL, IP and patents..

[Old Dan]

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.
> 
> Has anyone got any opinions on this?
How exactly have they worded this?  It does sound a bit like the person 
who drafted this has something shoved up his/her own a$$.  Or needs to.

I'm not sure of the legality of any claim they may believe they have 
over IP you produce in your own time.  It may be the case that what 
they're referring to is derivative works based on their own source code 
you see while at work, which is something different and they probably 
are on fairly safe ground with legally - you'd probably be breaking some 
copyright or other anyway and this is probably just seen by them as an 
added protection.

Which software is it which is being worked on, is it /all/ based on 
GPLed stuff?

-- 
Dan