I have read horror stories [such as a previous employer trying to claim ownership of the nginx server software because the developer was employed by the company at the time of development](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nginx#History).
Are these things to worry about in Belgium? I have read through my contract and it is pretty cryptic always stating “all works are ownership of the company as per statements mentioned in this contract” and at first sight it seems to only claim this for works to be performed during company hours and with company resources, but the whole contract is obviously legal gibberish hard to understand for non-lawyers.
I would like to know if any fellow employed programmers here have taken any special precautions to ensure employers do not try any funny business with personal projects that might have reaped popularity with the public mass, such signing a contract between employer and employee to ensure this.
To keep myself on the safe side for now I will not devote any time on personal projects during company time (even when working at home) such as programming, checking out bug reports or replying to emails nor would I use any company resources like laptop, mobile phone or software. I think this should suffice?
5 comments
Meeeh it is a bit of a grey area.
In general if the personal project is unrelated to the work you should be fine. E.g. if you write the new Harry Potter whilst working for a bank, they will never claim that.
If there is some relation it gets more difficult. If you are a programmer and you write some software tangentially related to the market your employer is in, it tends to get more iffy. Especially if you use company resources (time, company laptop) to work on a personal project related to work… It could be seen as taking time of your work with the intent of competing against your employer.
My contract specifically states that only stuff I write on company time or for the company/directly related to the business is theirs. We have better (for the employee) employment laws than the US too so I’m not too worried there.
If it’s in your contract then Yes technically. But you can have them take it out of your contract, just joke about making some malware on your free time hehe.
As long as you don’t use any of your employers resources (hardware, software, time) or any of their IP (code), you are fine. You probably also don’t want to try and sell anything to your employers customers or go into direct competition with your employer. It’s highly unlikely an employer will even attempt to claim your work, unless it’s clear you are taking advantage.
I know of a case where some developers used the code of the application they were developing for work, and try to sell the same application under a different name. They might even have gotten away with it, were they not stupid/brazen enough to try to sell it to existing clients….
If you want to make sure, get clarification from your manager. Ask for specific boundaries and give them the guarantee you’re not using company time and resources to work on your personal projects. Perhaps if you’re really committed to one of your projects, tell them specifically about that project. And make sure to get the approval in writing.