Work Made For Hire

I am a Civil Engineer working for the State Goverment Agency. I developed a computer program to perform certain engineering tasks. It was my own initiative to write this program, I wrote it partially in the office using the company computer and software, and partially at home.

The company liked the program and they want to copywrite it. The company lawyer stated that the program appeared to be a "work-made-for-hire" and the copywrite belongs to the company (State Agency). However, writing computer programs is not a part of my work responsibilities, and, as I understand, the work I did does not fall within any of two "work-made-for-hire" criteria.

Please advise how I should act in this situation. Thank you.

Alex Mirsakov
imirsakova[_at_]aol.com Received on Fri Jul 23 1999 - 02:12:00 GMT