Over the last few months, I’ve spent a fair amount of time building a tool that I’m reasonably certain I can sell (nothing novel, don’t get too excited) and I would really like to try. I know there is a customer base and I know it’s useful… because I built it to use myself. But I also plan to use it at work, that’s half the reason I built it. In fact, most of the company templates are just mine that I brought with me when I was hired.

While 90% of the time I spent building it was in the evenings, on my ‘own’ time… perhaps 10% of it was ‘company’ time where I had free time and spent it building this tool.

I’m 90% certain that my employee contract states any ‘inventions’ created are owned by the company, which is pretty standard in my industry. So I have a few questions:

  • Does my employer own this tool? (I know you aren’t lawyers, but maybe someone has insight?)
  • What is the risk of selling it anyway? What happens if I sell it and use it at work?
  • How do I find a clear path forward (without hiring a lawyer. This is practically hobby-tier, I don’t want to take it that far)

Posting from alt account because I’m paranoid and want to retain anonymity JIC

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  • BelmeezBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    I came across this a while back and even asked the question in my MBA course where the professor was a serial entrepreneur 9+ exits, 100m average exit and he brought a legal expert in ventures to talk to the class.

    The answer pretty much boils down to:

    1. Did you use any specific tools that the company had access to that you otherwise would not have. Think expensive software licenses, expensive equipment etc. (not generic tools like a laptop)

    2. It’s incredibly hard for a company to prove that they own your “invention” because you built it on company time. It’s not enough for you to just have worked on it during company time.

    Hope this helps