RE: Non contracted intelectual property. (UNCLASSIFIED)

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

The pitfall that nobody else has pointed out is that their current decision not to pursue is, I think, is not binding upon them. If some later management team has a different opinion, they would be free to go to court and try to argue that the company was the author of the work under the WMFH provisions. I don't like their chances, but...

-----Original Message-----
From: CNI-COPYRIGHT -- Copyright & Intellectual Property [mailto:CNI-COPYRIGHT[_at_]cni.org] On Behalf Of Brian Lucas Sent: Monday, January 08, 2007 3:00 PM
To: CNI-COPYRIGHT -- Copyright & Intellectual Property Subject: [CNI-(C)] Non contracted intelectual property.

This is purely for my curiosity's sake as the situation has already been settled but I was curious if anyone could give me some information or maybe a case law or two to back me up. I was working for a restaurant in my area as their kitchen manager. They were completely lacking in any sort of inventory management when I started there. I decided on my own accord to write a little program in sql using Access (on my personal computer using my copy of access) in order to keep track of their inventory. I was never commissioned to write this program. I wrote a minimum of 75% of the program on my own time. A maximum of 25% however was completed on work time when I had some downtime and nothing else to do. When I quit my job, the owner and GM "claimed" they had talked to their lawyer and owned the rights to this program. I denied them and they "decided not to pursue it". Did they have any legal right to my software?  

 Brian
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE Received on Thu Jan 11 2007 - 04:15:00 GMT