employer now wants to sell my program 1

[TheWkndr]

I worked for a consulting firm (Company A) for a while. We spent a year heavily customizing an application for a use which was intended specifically for use by Company B. The project was started with a partner who began as a contractor to Comp A, but was hired as an employee by Comp A not long after I left (He also currently works for Comp B, but in a completely different capacity and has no access to any production machines anymore. He does have copies of everything at home, I am sure though.). Comp A was never given any of our work - no code, no notes, nothing - and they never asked for any.
After a year, I was hired permanently as an employee by Comp B (I had no non-compete agreement with Comp A and my old bosses were scumbags anyway) and continued to work on this program and create a few offshoots of it for use by other departments. I am coming up on my two-year anniversary with Comp B.
Now it seems that my current boss has been convinced by my former boss to try and package and sell this application - as an add-on to the base software I'd have to assume. The thought of this scum further profiting from my work sickens me. All of the production code is encrypted on any production servers. I do have the source code, but only on my local machine.
My Question:
Am I legally obligated to give up everything to them? My head says yes, but I don't know if anyone else has run into this issue.

 

[chrissie1]

I don't know about your laws. But over here is everything you do during working hours as an employee the property of the company you work for. No exceptions.

Christiaan Baes
Belgium

If you want to get an answer read this FAQ faq796-2540
There's no such thing as a winnable war - Sting

 

[lgarner]

I interpret this to mean that Company A customized the program, and you happened to be the employee who worked on it. Yes, it looks to me as if the code is Company A's property. Your work at B would be B's property.

It may not be to your liking, but "profiting from [your] work" is why A hired you in the first place.

 

[chiph]

Yup, it belongs to them

You were paid for the work, right? So therefore you traded (x) hours of your life and skill/knowledge in return for their money.

Chip H.

(to be brutally honest -- all work done for someone else comes done to that equation).


____________________________________________________________________
If you want to get the best response to a question, please read FAQ222-2244 first

 

[Genimuse]

Work done under someone else's employ is referred to as "work for hire," a useful term you can search for at copyright.gov if you wish. The summary is as everyone else has said, your work was "for hire" and is therefore their property, be it physical work or intellectual work.

Mind you, some employment contracts can give you rights toe the intellectual property you produce, but it must be clearly stated in the contract.

 

[scottostanek]

There is a problem with saying flat out that this falls under "work for hire". If they did not require source code for all his work done thye have no idea what was done during that time. If he's continued to work on it at company B it is now company B's "work for hire" not A and should not necessarily profit A at all.

Anything he brought with him to B was part of his code library --his toolbox. Since he 'recreated' and developed further onto that he can say legitimately that if they have no copies of the source he isn't obligated to supply it. Their policies did not reflect this requirement to provide the code when he was their employee. (If however he signed an agreement to do so, well, USCWA-paddle)

If his current manager has been suckered into willingly giving away B's property, then he should talk to someone higher in the food chain at B about not giving anything --except for a price. And if B profits from the deal then he will.

Scotto the Unwise

 

[sedj]

scottostanek :

If I developed a programme 99.9% at home, and then brought it into work, and it was used, even only once at work (or part of it was), then that belongs to the company I work for. (I know this because I am in a situation similar to this - though the app was more like 75% home devel).