what is the situation wrt. ideas created by employees while employed ? who owns them ?

[Howard Gibson]

On Mon, 29 Jun 2009 15:58:58 -0400
ted leslie <tleslie-RBVUpeUoHUc at public.gmane.org> wrote:

> there is no right answer, without more details,
> how close is the "product C" to the employers offerings?
> what agreements have been signed?
> 
> I have seen a posting at a law firm in Canada that says moonlighting is allowed unless employer has document with employee that
> states otherwise. This is assuming its not a product on the employeers turf, or, done on employer time, or at their office, etc....

Ted,

   I have seen this discussion on some engineering blogs.  An engineer moonlights, using the company's CAD software to do design.  The system is built and it fails and someone is physically injured.  A lawyer goes looking for the idiot responsible, preferably an insured idiot.  The customer is not insured.  The moonlighting engineer is not insured.  The moonlighting engineer's employer _is_ insured.  In court, it will be argued that they should have supervised their engineer.

   There is the ethical issue of using expensive company resources to complete with people who have to pay for their tools.  SolidWorks goes for something like $7K these days.  Support is something like $1500 a year.  Decent FEA software starts at around $10K, and $30K is no problem, depending on the modeling you want to do.  Even the computers are high end.  CAD video cards are way more expensive then video game cards.  

   Legally, your activities may fall under the Professional Engineer's act.  Practising engineering, if you are not licensed to do so, is a criminal offense. 

   If the engineer is properly licensed, he purchases his own CAD station with software, and he purchases liability insurance, and he informs his employer that he is moonlighting, these ethical issues go away. 

   If you are a software developer using Free Software tools, these issues are not relevant.  If you use your home computer and your own software, your employer's liability is limited.  Software does not explode, or fall down and crush people.  I do not know what your level of liability is, or your changes are of getting sued.  

   It is still unethical to compete with your employer, and you do need to continue getting your regular work done. 

-- 
Howard Gibson 
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http://home.eol.ca/~hgibson
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