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Code ownership

ML
So I have been working as an electronics consultant for a company who employ me as self employed worker to do some electronics works for them. They are paying me by the hour along with travel expenses.

I have just made a device for them complete with code which they have now asked for and I was wondering a couple of things;
  • Does the code belong to me or to the company?

  • Can I charge them a one off fee for giving them the code?


I would really appreciate any help, knowledge, or pointers. Thank you for reading
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    In the UK I have often employed contractors to write code to specification and have also been employed as the contractor. The IP always resides with the hirer and that would normally be explicit  in the contract. I have also been employed as a company to write code for others, there it gets more difficult as we, the company,  may be using  code and IP we have developed to speed up development or use IP which is fundamental to the project, in that case we would negotiate on a case by case basis about what rights the customer has. If it was for their own use then there would be no problems about supplying the code to them, often in escrow, if they wished to resell it in some way there would be lots of negotiations. In all cases there would be a contract specifying who has what rights.
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    In the UK I have often employed contractors to write code to specification and have also been employed as the contractor. The IP always resides with the hirer and that would normally be explicit  in the contract. I have also been employed as a company to write code for others, there it gets more difficult as we, the company,  may be using  code and IP we have developed to speed up development or use IP which is fundamental to the project, in that case we would negotiate on a case by case basis about what rights the customer has. If it was for their own use then there would be no problems about supplying the code to them, often in escrow, if they wished to resell it in some way there would be lots of negotiations. In all cases there would be a contract specifying who has what rights.
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