Legality of selling software

[Conseils]

The point about the log book is extremely important for intellectual property and if these exist (which they should) for the first company then this helps clarify even further, ownership. I suspect that there are no log books as most companies (not NI for example) do not understand how IP should be managed. Sucessfull companies do understand how to achieve this!

What's the company that you work for doing? (that's a question to everyone else on the forum as well, should probably float that as a break point question???).

Message Edité par Conseils le 02-07-2006 11:02 PM

[Enrique]

Go, get your own copy of LabVIEW and develop the application from scratch, from your mind, on your house, on your own time. If I "hear" (I mean, read) you correctly, it was never meant to be sold as a product and you have the knowledge, potentially with enough improvements to make it a unique commercial product.

Imagine that for whatever reason you no longer have a job and, brainstorming, the idea of developing such a toolkit came to your mind as your business. What will be different?

If you realize is really not yours, then go and ask your employer. If they don't care, great! If they do, just pay them the just royalty - I don't know, one dollar per copy you sell? One thousand dollars and is yours? Copyrights are negotiable.

Message Edited by Enrique on 02-07-2006 05:09 PM

[smercurio_fc]

Enrique, you are quite correct in that this software was never meant to be sold as a product. I was an engineer doing my job and I created something to fix a deficiency in LabVIEW and to make the application I was creating function better. Over the years I've tweaked it and expanded it to increase its capabilities, and this past week I found myself with free time at work that I was starting to do it again when the question I posed arose in my head again.

The company I currently work for is not in the business of selling software - we do RF stuff. The software I develop is for the test systems that test the products we make. So, from that perspective there's no issue of competition with my current company. The same could be said of my former employers.

Based on what I've heard so far, clearly if I wish to pursue this my only safe option is to start from scratch and to make the implementation different enough that the "derivative" claim cannot be used. I would pursue getting a release from my former employers if it was practical to do so, but it just isn't.

I appreciate the feedback. Thank you.