"Rights" to Backup copies of Work Product?

[Russ Filtz]

Leaving my current job and was wondering what the legal rights are of employees to get copies of work products from a company? My old company I was able to get copies of work files on the projects I worked on for future reference, including a huge file with every email I saved.

Tried to do that now, and my boss said no way. I know these things are probably considered company property, but do employees have any rights to retain copies of their own "intellectual property"?

[Jim Becker]

Generally, what you do for work is for work. Even patents...your name may be on them, but they were "funded" by the company and the company retains the rights. But given this is a legal matter, you'll need to consult legal council if you think you have something to pursue.

[Bob Childress]

but do employees have any rights to retain copies of their own "intellectual property"?

Of course they do. If it is "their" property. The problem is, if you thought it up at work or applied it at work, or developed it at work, or wrote it at work, it is not your property, but the property of your employer.

If it is important to your future employment, you should consult legal counsel.

[John Schreiber]

The comments above make sense to me, if you did it on company time, I would think it belongs to the company. However I know of examples where under threat of a law-suit, things went the other way so far as to prevent the company from using the product after the employee left.

As above, if this is important, consult a lawyer.

[Russ Filtz]

Actually a lot of the documents I'm talking about were developed from models I created at previous companies (spreadsheets, design reports, etc), so technically my current company violated the law!

My current company is very lawsuit shy as they've got a current big one going on. Everything in email is scrutinized for things that could be misinterpreted, even internal ones!

[Joe Pelonio]

I did look into this a couple of years ago when an employee had been stealing from me, and found that "employee theft" includes saving and or using files on a company owned computer regardless of whether that person created those files, and the local police/D.A. will prosecute if charges are pressed.

[Bill Lantry]

Russ,

you've gotten some good answers, but there's another answer. "It depends". Mostly it depends on what the company's written policy is. If you can do it peacefully, ask the manager in question for a copy of the policy. He may be as surprised as you are. Assuming that *everything* is "work for hire" is not always correct. It's worth checking into, especially if you can do it without raising a firestorm...

Thanks,

Bill

[Russ Filtz]

Not a big deal really, I still have all my old backup files from previous jobs I can use as a base. Don't really use things as-is, just as a base for new projects.

I view it as kind of like a salesman's contact list. They can't prevent you from contacting people on your list when you leave (unless there was some sort of elaborate non-compete agreement signed). That would prevent you from earning a livelihood which I believe courts have ruled in favor of the ex-employee in such matters.

[Ryan Cathey]

Yup, did you know the guy who invented post it notes worked for 3M at the time and has never seen a cent of that money....sucks for him.

-Ryan C.

[Jim Becker]

Yup, did you know the guy who invented post it notes worked for 3M at the time and has never seen a cent of that money....sucks for him.

Even more interesting is that it was supposedly a "mistake" in a formula...

[Ryan Cathey]

Really? I hadn't heard that. Oh well, at least that means he wasn't trying to make some money.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Leaving my current job and was wondering what the legal rights are of employees to get copies of work products from a company? My old company I was able to get copies of work files on the projects I worked on for future reference, including a huge file with every email I saved.

Without more all I can say is most of what an employee does is company property - period. Unless you had a contract that expressly entitles you to owhership rights on some level.

[Matt Meiser]

I have to agree with all the opinions here. Further, if your boss is opposed, I wouldn't mess with it even if you think you have rights as a result of some kind of contract because its going to cost (monetarily and otherwise) you to defend that right even if you win.

[Greg Funk]

Yup, did you know the guy who invented post it notes worked for 3M at the time and has never seen a cent of that money....sucks for him.

-Ryan C.

I assume he was paid a decent salary for working in a research lab. It's the nature of the beast. If you think that employees deserve some type of windfall bonus for an invention that makes it big then you would also have to expect them to give up their salary if things didn't pan out.

Greg

[Matt Meiser]

Many companies have you sign a contract when you start saying that they own the rights to anything you invent. When I worked for Caterpillar we had to do that--they paid us $1 per patent to transfer the rights to them because that was what was in the contract. Luckily they announced a bonus right before mine got filed so I got $1 cash + a $100 check. I still have the $1 but the $100 is long gone