[Year 12 IPM] A quick before-the-exam question

[Mark Kelly]

Unless there's an agreement to the contrary, the "author" of 
intellectual property created as part of an employer/employee is deemed 
to be the employer.

e.g. in the UK...

"Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988

Section 11: Where a literary work (includes computer programmes, 
dramatic, musical or artistic work) is made by an employee in the course 
of his employment, his employer is the first owner of any copyright in 
the work subject to any agreement to the contrary."

Similar laws apply in the US and (I expect) Australia.

I seem to even remember cases where employees doing private work that 
was similar to their paid job have lost rights to IP.  The employer 
argued that the employee's patent or copyright was helped/subsidised by 
the employer who paid them.

It makes sense to me.  If I worked for Du Pont for example, and invented 
Teflon as part of my job, I would be surprised if the company said I 
could have all the income from my invention.  How would the company 
survive?

A bit of Googling was interesting...

http://www.jisclegal.ac.uk/ipr/IntellectualProperty.htm

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0GSZ/is_11_42/ai_53710428




Keith Richardson wrote:
> A question from the prac exam was:
> 
> "A young innovative programmer working for SoftEASI (a dynamic software
> development company) has developed a unique virtual reality game.
> Explain to whom the rights to the game belong under the Copyright
> Amendment (Digital Agenda) Act 2000."
> 
> The answer claims that because it was undertaken during working hours,
> SoftEASI owns the rights to the software, to which I disagree. Unless
> the software had some connection to the work being done normally, the
> author has copyright over it.
> 
> As an analogy, if there is a photojournalist for a newspaper out taking
> photos at a sporting tournament, if they take out their mobile phone to
> take a personal photo, the company does not own it, the author does.
> 
> What do others think?
> Keith Richardson
> IPM List Moderator
> Head of ICT, Leibler Yavneh College
> Elsternwick
> Ph: 03.9528.4911
> k.richardson at yavneh.vic.edu.au
> 
> _______________________________________________
> http://www.edulists.com.au - FAQ, resources, subscribe, unsubscribe
> IPM Mailing List kindly supported by
> http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au - Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority and
> http://www.vitta.org.au  - VITTA Victorian Information Technology Teachers Association Inc
> 
> 

-- 
Mark Kelly
Manager - Information Systems
McKinnon Secondary College
McKinnon Rd McKinnon 3204, Victoria, Australia
Direct line / Voicemail: 8520 9085
School Phone +613 8520 9000 << new number!
School Fax   +613 9578 9253

Webmaster - http://www.mckinnonsc.vic.edu.au
IPM Lecture notes: http://vceit.com
Moderator: IPM Mailing List

Doctor - We must all face reality sooner or later.
Dowd   - I wrestled with reality for 35 years, doctor, and I'm happy to 
say I won out over it.  ('Harvey', 1950)