Legal Question in Intellectual Property in Tennessee

Does the company I work for own the rights to anything I create, on the web, for them or in my spare time?


Asked on 2/25/12, 10:23 am

1 Answer from Attorneys

Nancy Delain Delain Law Office, PLLC

Your answer lies in the contract for employment between you and your employer. Generally, these contracts say that employers own what employees create or invent for them, using their equipment, corporate knowledge, or webspace, or under their name, no matter when the employee makes the creation or invention, and that they own anything created or invented while the employee is on the clock; whether they own what the employee creates on their own time, and using their own equipment, knowledge, and web space is often less than clear in the employment agreement and can lead to a lot of angst between the employer and employee.

Mine is a GENERAL statement; your employment contract contains the specific response you seek, and that response may differ from my generalization.

THIS POST CONTAINS GENERAL INFORMATION AND IS INTENDED FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY. IT DOES NOT CONSTITUTE LEGAL ADVICE, NOR DOES IT CREATE ANY ATTORNEY-CLIENT RELATIONSHIP. FOR LEGAL ADVICE ON YOUR PARTICULAR MATTER, CONSULT YOUR ATTORNEY.

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Answered on 2/25/12, 11:36 am


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