

Ask HN: Working on my own stuff while working at a startup - mtsmith85

Hi Everyone--<p>I'm interested in starting a quasi-legal, but obviously not discussed by legal minds, discussion about work-related, free time projects.<p>I work as the lead developer for a startup. I love to code, I love to solve problems and very much love &#38; enjoy my job. From time to time, though, I work on projects outside of the office. The company owner has made it clear that as long as it doesn't negatively impact the job, there isn't an issue. Any agreements I have signed don't have any restrictions on not working outside of the office.<p>So here is my question: Is it "kosher" to go about working on semi-related projects and putting them under my name? For example, a "graph data format" for use with ProtoVis &#60;http://vis.stanford.edu/protovis/&#62; for passing graph data from the backend through to the JavaScript graph generator. Did I build it for work? Not directly. I see the need and am developing it. Will it make my life at work easier? Most likely as it so happens I have decided to use ProtoVis in a work project.<p>So, HN'ers. Where and how do you draw the boundary line for working on projects related to your work? Aren't so many businesses built on the idea of seeing something that can be made better and doing that?<p>Thanks!
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ohashi
If you're developing things that would be useful for your startup (you're the
lead developer, I have to assume you make a lot of decisions as to how to do
things)... then I would think you need to at least discuss the issue with your
partners/bosses/investors.

Your name should definitely be on the code, but the bigger question I think is
- should theirs?

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mtsmith85
That is an interesting point. Which, as I'm not a founder (First FT employee
here), means that anything I d for work is owned by the founders' company.

I wonder how it relates to patents. Even at large firms, the person who
"developed" the idea would be listed as the author; but very often other
higher ups are listed to (for example, Steve Jobs on a ton of Apple patents.)
Do these companies own the IP to those patents? or is the developers?

~~~
ohashi
My understanding was that they signed over the rights for something nominal
(see $1) in most cases.

