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Work for Hire
By: Douglas M. Leavitt, Esquire
After spending thousands of dollars to develop
a computer software program that you thought you
would market exclusively to the public, your software
developer hits you with a copyright infringement
lawsuit. Your consultant is now trying to sell your
product to the public and prevent you from doing
the same!! Who owns the computer code and what went
wrong?
While the law may vary slightly from state to
state, the general rule of thumb is that whatever
an employee creates within the scope of his or
her employment is the property of the employer.
In such cases, the employer is considered the
“author” of the work under the “work
for hire” doctrine and has the ability to
obtain a copyright for such work.
However, if an employer retains an independent
contractor and does not have a written agreement
providing for the independent contractor to assign
the rights in the work it is creating to the employer,
all the employer has is an implied non exclusive
license to use the work in the manner in which
the parties intended. This means that the independent
contractor can now market the work to your competitors
and there is nothing you can do to prevent this
from happening.
This potentially disastrous result can be easily
avoided with a carefully planned agreement that
protects your rights. At Danziger Shapiro &
Leavitt, we understand the needs of our clients
to keep their trade secrets private, confidential
and out of the hands of their competitors. Please
call us today so we can show you how.
- Published November, 2006
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