Legal Question in Intellectual Property in Connecticut

Re: Software Ownership

Unless it was within the scope of your duties as an employee, you own it. The school is a licensee at will, meaning that you can terminate it at any time with reasonable notice.

Best wishes,

LDWG

Re: Software Ownership

In general, if you were not an employee of the school or any other company or person during the time you designed the software, and you did it alone, you are the author under the copyright law. The school is likely, as Mr. Graves correctly state, a licensee at will, unless there is some agreement between you and the school, either actual or implied, of continued permission.

My suggestion is get on the computer, go to www.copyright.gov and download the forms for copyright registration of computer programs (Form TX with instructions). Also download circular 61 which is the official brochure on how to register a copyright on a computer program. Follow the instructions to fill in Form TX and then send it along with the $30 fee and a copy of your software on CD to the Copyright Office and shortly you will receive a copyright registration for your software, which serves as legal proof of your ownership of the software (subject to court challenge, which is very rare.) If you have enough money, I would suggest you have a copyright lawyer look over the application before you send it in, but my experience is that most beginners who read the circular and the instructions have little trouble doing the form correctly. You should have your registration back before school starts up in the fall.