Legal Question in Technology Law in Maryland
Violation of trade secrets? Copyrights?
I currently work for a software company. I created an small application on both my off-time and on company time that we use internally. This application is a generic office application and is not related to the core business of the company. It is not part of the applications we sell, just one used internally. But I believe this application could be marketed. I would like to rewrite (i.e. not use any code) the application, completely on my own time with the possibility of starting a company around it.
Could the company sue me if I do this?
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Violation of trade secrets? Copyrights?
It may depend on what your employment contract or independent contractor agreement says.
An intellectual property attorney should review that contract.
Re: Violation of trade secrets? Copyrights?
If you wrote the code on company time (even some part of it) then the company has the copyright to at least some part of it under the "work for hire" doctrine.
If you take the idea for the product and write it on your off time, you could probably market it. But your company might well come back for a share of the royalties if you did that. I'm not saying thats likely, just possible.
The cleanest way to do it is to get their permisison.
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