Code ownership

Hi,

(I'm assuming you're in the UK, the law may be different in different countries)


It depends on your contract if you have one. That's the easy bit.


If you don't have a contract then probably the IP in the code belongs to you. But if they paid you to produce code, and you did, I don't really see how you could avoid giving it to them. (Although as an example you could, in theory, stop them selling it on to a third party without your agreement.) 


However in the real world, they probably know that if you were to push this point then your legal fees and hassle are likely to far outweigh any benefit to you from pressing this case. So unless you think this code is really valuable (and you need to be honest and realistic with yourself about this) your best bet will be to try to negotiate a 'friendly' bonus, and if that fails then mark it up to experience and make sure that you have a contract in place next time. Be aware that the company may not want to give you more money for it as it will set a precedent, you'll need to be able to show that this is clearly additional work beyond that which you had already paid you for.


Really good question which I'm sure will apply to others here, thanks for posting it! It really emphasises how important negotiating a good contract is. Handshake agreements are fine until they go wrong - which they very often do. 


There's lots of good info on the web about this, for example http://www.shoosmiths.co.uk/client-resources/legal-updates/who-owns-what-when-it-comes-to-intellectual-property-12423.aspx But again, remember that having rights and having the cash and time free to enforce them are two different things.


Good luck,


Andy

Hi,

(I'm assuming you're in the UK, the law may be different in different countries)


It depends on your contract if you have one. That's the easy bit.


If you don't have a contract then probably the IP in the code belongs to you. But if they paid you to produce code, and you did, I don't really see how you could avoid giving it to them. (Although as an example you could, in theory, stop them selling it on to a third party without your agreement.) 


However in the real world, they probably know that if you were to push this point then your legal fees and hassle are likely to far outweigh any benefit to you from pressing this case. So unless you think this code is really valuable (and you need to be honest and realistic with yourself about this) your best bet will be to try to negotiate a 'friendly' bonus, and if that fails then mark it up to experience and make sure that you have a contract in place next time. Be aware that the company may not want to give you more money for it as it will set a precedent, you'll need to be able to show that this is clearly additional work beyond that which you had already paid you for.


Really good question which I'm sure will apply to others here, thanks for posting it! It really emphasises how important negotiating a good contract is. Handshake agreements are fine until they go wrong - which they very often do. 


There's lots of good info on the web about this, for example http://www.shoosmiths.co.uk/client-resources/legal-updates/who-owns-what-when-it-comes-to-intellectual-property-12423.aspx But again, remember that having rights and having the cash and time free to enforce them are two different things.


Good luck,


Andy