Corporate Lawyers and PMMs

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Are you under a non-disclosure agreement with your employer that limits or takes your rights to your inventions?

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rmd3
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Corporate Lawyers and PMMs

Post by rmd3 »

About a year ago I was working for a major US corporation, and having been a long time web surfer of FE and PM topics, I thought I should file a "Request To Do Outside Business" sort of form - you know - just in case anything panned out in the garage.

Anyway, I had done it before and had no problems, but this time was different... I specifically stated that I wanted to work on an overbalance PPM wheel (if Bessler could do it, why couldn't I?). I specifically stated that I wanted to retain all intellectual property rights (I had done that before without issue). And guess what happened?

The lawyer who was to give my manager a legal "OK" stamp, first wanted to forward the request all the way to the cheif engineer! Without confirming or denying a belief in PMM, I got a reply from the lawyer saying that there might be some electrical mechanism, spring mechanism, etc. which the company may wish to claim. (Did he know something about PPMs? I doubt it!)

The wording of the reply left you with the feeling like: if we can make money from it, then we want it. Mind you, in California, if you invent on your own outside of work and it is not the employer's line of business, you can't sign away your rights (Thank God I moved here!... now I just need to invent that PMM). As far as I know, that company's field is relatively narrow and has absolutely nothing to do with PPM.

I responded saying that if it was the case, then I didn't want management to sign it! But that's not all. The lawyer said that management could sign it but signing it wouldn't release any rights of the company?!! Huh?! I don't understand corporate lawyers.

Anyway, our group got laid-off last Fall. Thank God for that too! I am free to invent and own my inventions. I've started by own business and I have agreed to keep all intellectual property rights for myself!

Anybody experience anything similar? You might want to check out the non-disclosure agreement you signed when you started working. You might just want to file an exception with the boss - I would hate to see you lose your PMM rights!

Thanks for reading my first post to the board,
Randall
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Fletcher
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re: Corporate Lawyers and PMMs

Post by Fletcher »

Hi Randall .. not a situation I'm familiar with so can't really comment other than to say welcome. I have been out on my own for about 10 years now so it doesn't arise for me. My current long term project is property development in Fiji which doesn't need a NDA but I could probably do with some coup insurance around election times :)
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re: Corporate Lawyers and PMMs

Post by ken_behrendt »

Hi, Randall, and welcome to the Discussion Board.

I've had a few jobs in the past that required me to sign statements that would automatically transfer the rights to an invention I might make on the job to my employer. Actually, the they would patent it in my name, give me a whole dollar for it, and then they would keep the future rights to the invention plus any royalties it generated. I went along with this because, aside from being a condition for my employment, it seemed fair because any inventions I came up while working there would have been conceived using their equipment, materials, and financing.

However, I always made it clear to them that I also did inventing as a hobby and that anything I came up with on my own time and at my own expense was mine to keep. I usually did not get any flack from them on that issue.


ken
On 7/6/06, I found, in any overbalanced gravity wheel with rotation rate, ω, axle to CG distance d, and CG dip angle φ, the average vertical velocity of its drive weights is downward and given by:

Vaver = -2(√2)πdωcosφ
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re: Corporate Lawyers and PMMs

Post by ovyyus »

Some years ago I worked for a university. They claimed rights to anything I might have invented during my employment. There's no past employment option in your poll so I voted 'no'.
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pstroud
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re: Corporate Lawyers and PMMs

Post by pstroud »

I do have a non-disclosure agreement with my employer. However, since I am not in marketing, engineering customer service, manufacturing, etc and my personal inventions have absolutely no relationship to my employer's medical devices, I would assume they would have no ties to anything I may invent.

Preston.
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re: Corporate Lawyers and PMMs

Post by Steve Witter »

Hi Randall, I worked 38 years for the same company and watched it grow from a family owned business to an international corporation with 28,000 employees. My job was machine design engineer designing some of the construction of assembly equipment. It was a fun job, I loved every minute of it. The company grew and they eventually had a staff of lawyers including a patent lawyer. He decided that all engineering staff had to sign a non-disclosure agreement. I signed after adding that anything I made on my own time and money that was not in their product line was solely mine. They agreed in writing.
Their agreement also included a five year extension of their rights after the employee leaves the company. Just wanted to advise you of that part.
Good luck,
Steve Witter
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re: Corporate Lawyers and PMMs

Post by coylo »

I once walked into a fancy dress party dressed only in my Y-fronts.
A woman came up to me and said, "What are you supposed to be?"

I replied - "A premature ejaculation."

"What?" says the woman.

I explained..........."I've just come in my pants."


....."now I just need to invent that PMM!"
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