Achieve Online Signature Licitness for Assignment of Intellectual Property in United States

How to eSign a document: online signature licitness for Assignment of intellectual property in United States

hello my name is Ruth Carter and I'm a licensed attorney in Arizona and this is your question of the day so somebody asked me what can an individual expect regarding their own rights even if they're employed when they develop invent or create something for instance my dad has invented a bunch of stuff and he's listed as an inventor on about 20 patents how does the relationship work between employees and their employer what about my friend who doesn't have the right to further develop something she's worked on for years okay so the rules regarding patents and other IP are different so if you are an inventor of something you have to be listed on the patent application now that's the rule but many times companies have their employees sign contracts as part of their employment agreement that says that they will assign all rights to any intellectual property created to the company so you can be listed as an inventor on a patent but not on the patent make sense okay now if your job involves creating something for the company whether it's software marketing materials any original works everything that you create within the scope of your employment automatically is owned by your employer and the employer is the author of the work not you this is if you are an employee if you are an independent contractor you have to have a written assignment for the employer to own whatever you created but employees everything you create within the scope of your job is authored and owned by the company and companies can put in your employment contract as part of like non-compete agreement that anything that you create during your during the scope of your work is owned by the company and you cannot in the future compete with the company in a way that would leave them at a disadvantage so that is why you see situations where someone worked on a project for years and then once they leave the company they can't work on that specific type of project for another company because it would violate their non-compete agreement assuming non-compete agreements are legal in the state under which the employment contract was written do you know complicated did this get this is this is why we have lawyers so yeah I would say when you are looking at your employment paperwork read it carefully so that you understand what rights you give up in exchange for being able to be an employee at a company so that you understand what you do and don't own because a lot of people assume that because they worked on something they own it and then you see situations where someone leaves the company and then maybe puts up a personal portfolio of their work with copies of things they've worked on in the past and what they're doing is committing infringement against their employer because they actually own it the employee does it so if you have any questions about the rights in your state about non-compete agreements or intellectual property rights please consult a lawyer in your community because of course watching this video does not create an attorney-client relationship with any viewer it's merely legal information not legal advice if you need legal advice go hire somebody that's all I have for now please subscribe to the channel as I put up new content every week and until then I will catch up with you later take care