Hey everyone, I am planning on quitting my current job, but during my employment, I have developed a few apps that were used to streamline common data tasks using Visual Foxpro. I was in no way hired as a programmer. My job title is Department Manager. I knew nothing four years ago and have learned VFP over many long nights. I wrote these APP's to be used at the company, but were written on personal time. I do not want the company to keep these applications. Are they legally mine? Do I have the right to take them? Thanks for any input.
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Who's APP is it?
- Thread starter FoxFool
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chelseatech
Instructor
If you had written an Excel spreadsheet or a Word document of company procedures on your home machine to use at work, then the employer would expect that to remain in the company after you leave. An application with source code would be no different.
If it contains information about the company they have every right to claim it is theirs and deny you permission to keep a copy.
If the code you have developed helped make your job easier then that creates competitive advantage. If you went down the road to a competitor then you are no different to the guy who steals their main production machine and gives/sells that to the competitor. It is just a diference in scale.
In the abscence of an agreement, the company as your employer owns the software you have developed.
Talk to them nicely and see if you can keep a copy. It is reasonable for them to ask you not to use this at a competitor.
If it gets messy, then delete your code from your home machine and write a new version. The second version will be better anyway.
Editor and Publisher of Crystal Clear
If it contains information about the company they have every right to claim it is theirs and deny you permission to keep a copy.
If the code you have developed helped make your job easier then that creates competitive advantage. If you went down the road to a competitor then you are no different to the guy who steals their main production machine and gives/sells that to the competitor. It is just a diference in scale.
In the abscence of an agreement, the company as your employer owns the software you have developed.
Talk to them nicely and see if you can keep a copy. It is reasonable for them to ask you not to use this at a competitor.
If it gets messy, then delete your code from your home machine and write a new version. The second version will be better anyway.
Editor and Publisher of Crystal Clear
GoTellBigDaddy
Vendor
One MAJOR difference in ALL these posts:
it also dependz upon which COUNTRY these events occurred.
it also dependz upon which COUNTRY these events occurred.
The legal bits may depend on which country you're in, but the ethical issue is clear. It belongs to the company that is paying you
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If you were working as a manager, the company entrusted you to do your job whatever way you wanted as long as it did not violate any company policy.
If a manager during his period of employment have created a procedure that contributed to the productivity of his department, the company has the right to keep that procedure even after the manager decided to leave the company, and even if the manager developed the "idea" while spending time at home. But if such procedure is done by the manager himself, (meaning, he does it without the involvement of anybody in the company) he doesn't have the obligation to turn it over to somebody else in that company.
The same thing applies to a program created by a manager. If one of his staff uses that program for their department's use, he cannot take it away from the company. But if he himself was the only user of the program he made (to perform his task effectively), he has no obligation to turn it over to the company. There are some exceptions though, like if he is going to turn over records of his projects done. And the only way to retrieve those records is to use his program.
If a manager during his period of employment have created a procedure that contributed to the productivity of his department, the company has the right to keep that procedure even after the manager decided to leave the company, and even if the manager developed the "idea" while spending time at home. But if such procedure is done by the manager himself, (meaning, he does it without the involvement of anybody in the company) he doesn't have the obligation to turn it over to somebody else in that company.
The same thing applies to a program created by a manager. If one of his staff uses that program for their department's use, he cannot take it away from the company. But if he himself was the only user of the program he made (to perform his task effectively), he has no obligation to turn it over to the company. There are some exceptions though, like if he is going to turn over records of his projects done. And the only way to retrieve those records is to use his program.
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