[FRIAM] Ownership of expired patent

[Russell Standish]

On Tue, Jul 02, 2019 at 04:55:59PM -0600, Stephen Guerin wrote:
> Not a lawyer /  this is my understanding.
> 
> Yes, the firm owns the copyright to the code and is a form of intellectual
> property independent of patent.
> 
> Copyright is owned by the author (or entity that had work-for-hire agreements)
> at the moment of creation.
> 
> As an author or someone that had access to proprietary information during it's
> creation, you can not rewrite it in a different language or transfer any
> knowledge to someone who is. it would violate the copyright. If an independent
> person saw the product and wanted to re-implement the functionality without
> access to the code or other proprietary information they could do so in a
> "clean room design" process:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_room_design
> 

If you've rewritten the code without access to the original, you
should be safe from copyright infringement. I guess it is a little
harder to prove that you didn't have access to the original code when
once you did, which is perhaps why the clean room design process is
suggested.

You may, however, open yourself up to being sued under any non
disclosure agreement (NDA) you might have signed as part of your
work-for-hire agreement. You should check the exact wording of that
agreement.


> -Stephen
> _______________________________________________________________________ 
> CEO, Simtable  http://www.simtable.com
> 1600 Lena St #D1, Santa Fe, NM 87505
> office: (505)995-0206 mobile: (505)577-5828
> twitter: @simtable
> 
> 
> On Tue, Jul 2, 2019 at 4:13 PM Ron Newman <ron.newman at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>     P.S.  A more subtle question is what if I rewrote the formerly-patented
>     application in a different language.  Does a work-for-hire cover ideas?  I
>     think it does.
> 
>     Ron Newman, M.S., M.M.E.
>     Founder, IdeaTreeLive.com Knowledge Modeling
>     www.RonPiano.com
>     Blog
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>     On Tue, Jul 2, 2019 at 4:11 PM Ron Newman <ron.newman at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>         I think the patent, which is non-renewable, and the code implementing
>         the patent are two separate things.  The first they lose rights over,
>         but the second is covered by a work-for-hire agreement since it could
>         be used internally, or even sold as a product by the corporation
>         without patent.  But I could be wrong.
> 
>         Ron Newman, M.S., M.M.E.
>         Founder, IdeaTreeLive.com Knowledge Modeling
>         www.RonPiano.com
>         Blog
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>         On Tue, Jul 2, 2019 at 4:06 PM Tom Johnson <tom at jtjohnson.com> wrote:
> 
>             Would not the corporation have to renew the patent at some point?
>             Tom
> 
>             ============================================
>             Tom Johnson - tom at jtjohnson.com
>             Institute for Analytic Journalism   --     Santa Fe, NM USA
>             505.577.6482(c)                                    505.473.9646(h)
>             NM Foundation for Open Government
>             Check out It's The People's Data                 
>             ============================================
> 
> 
>             On Tue, Jul 2, 2019 at 3:55 PM Ron Newman <ron.newman at gmail.com>
>             wrote:
> 
>                 I was awarded a software patent 30 years ago while at a
>                 corporate job.  That patent has since expired, of course.  I
>                 assume I signed a work-for-hire agreement the first day on that
>                 job.
> 
>                 Now that it's expired, I also assume the corporation still owns
>                 the code, and so I'm not free to open source it.  Correct?
> 
>                 Any IP attorneys here?
> 
>                 Ron Newman, M.S., M.M.E.
>                 Founder, IdeaTreeLive.com Knowledge Modeling
>                 www.RonPiano.com
>                 Blog
> 
> 
> 
> 
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Dr Russell Standish                    Phone 0425 253119 (mobile)
Principal, High Performance Coders
Visiting Senior Research Fellow        hpcoder at hpcoders.com.au
Economics, Kingston University         http://www.hpcoders.com.au
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