Is my boss doing something illegal?

[sygyzy]

UC's supposedly cost $15,000 a year. But TUITION is nowhere near that. Are you sure you pay $27,000 just for tuition? So with your rent, books, and gas you are paying something like $40,000 a year? What school do you go to?

Even if they regurgitate information, would you rather spend 3 hours seaching and organizing the information from google or spending 1 hour in lecture with it given to you in a concise manner? I am totally playing devil's advocate here. Don't get me wrong. I have many criticisms of universities and colleges tool.

You are right, college is supposed to be about teaching yourself. But it's also about learning. At my alma matter, there was a school (different schools in a university, ie school of enngineering) that stressed self learning. There was less emphasis on grades and it was very free. Imagine a hippie school. Maybe you should find similar program.

 

Your boss sucks, steal his pens.

 

[yukichigai]

Patent law is iffy at best. But there may be something here. Your contract probably says the company owns the patents, but you should still get some credit if you came up with the idea.

If the patent in no way contains the company name and your boss is not the owner/CEO of the company then it almost certainly is illegal.

 

[SuperTool]

The company owns the patent, regardless of whose name is on it. But, I believe they still have to put your name on it as the inventor, and you have to sign it off to the company. It's a legal document, and if they say the boss is the inventor even though he isn't it could be perjury.
I have filed a couple. The company owns them, but my name is either by itself, or first, as the original inventor. Then I put people who contributed to the patent. I've seen cases where bosses have been added as co-inventors by virtue of being boss. I don't necessarily have a problem with that if the boss is nice and supportive of the invention process even if not directly involved. You gotta grease the wheels sometimes. I do have a problem when there is pressure from above to do it though. But I think the boss being put as sole inventor without giving any credit to the actual inventor is really low. Even if he put himself as the primary inverntor and you as a co-inventor, that would be low too. I would find a better place to work.

 

[AFB]

I remember when one place sued a programmer for stuff he did on his FREE time. Since it was in his contract anything he wrote was property of the company.

I can't remember the outcome of it though.

That wasn't too far from me. The guy lost. Of course what he happened to be developing was almost the exact same thing as what he was doing at work..

 

[SuperTool]

Originally posted by: kermalou
lets see you are getting paid by him to develop this software, so in theory it is his software.

now if you were doing this on your own, it is yours, until then it's his.

The company may be the owner of the patent. But he is still the inventor. If Bill invents something while working for Bob, Bob will be the asignee of the patent, but Bill is listed as the inventor.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: SuperTool
The company owns the patent, regardless of whose name is on it. But, I believe they still have to put your name on it as the inventor, and you have to sign it off to the company. It's a legal document, and if they say the boss is the inventor even though he isn't it could be perjury.
I have filed a couple. The company owns them, but my name is either by itself, or first, as the original inventor. Then I put people who contributed to the patent. I've seen cases where bosses have been added as co-inventors by virtue of being boss. I don't necessarily have a problem with that if the boss is nice and supportive of the invention process even if not directly involved. You gotta grease the wheels sometimes. I do have a problem when there is pressure from above to do it though. But I think the boss being put as sole inventor without giving any credit to the actual inventor is really low. Even if he put himself as the primary inverntor and you as a co-inventor, that would be low too. I would find a better place to work.

Yeah I agree with you here. I recall reading somewhere that you can't patent something unless you invented it yourself, so you can't sell someone an unpatented idea and let them patent it.

 

[Beattie]

Originally posted by: Kenji4861

Originally posted by: nakedfrog

Originally posted by: MacBaine
What's your contract say?

I'll bet it says any ideas he comes up with are company property.

Yes, anything I develop here is company property, but the boss said my name is on the patent. Does that make any difference?

Your name should still be on the patent as an inventor, but the patent is owned by the company. So, basically you get recognition that you did it, but you cant profit from it.

 

[richardycc]

as usual, tons of misinformation and personal opinion on here, the fact that you are working on the project does NOT automatically put your name on the patent, unless the inventor is being generous. you name might get listed as witness, thats about it! I know what I am talking about, as my company patent lawyer was here last week, and my name is not on the patent.