<div dir="ltr">Not a lawyer / this is my understanding.<div><br></div><div>Yes, the firm owns the copyright to the code and is a form of intellectual property independent of patent. <br><br>Copyright is owned by the author (or entity that had work-for-hire agreements) at the moment of creation.<br><br>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:
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_room_design">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_room_design</a><div><br></div><div>-Stephen<br clear="all"><div><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr">_______________________________________________________________________ <div>CEO, Simtable <a href="http://www.simtable.com/" target="_blank">http://www.simtable.com</a><br><div>1600 Lena St #D1, Santa Fe, NM 87505<div><div>office: (505)995-0206 <span style="font-size:12.8000001907349px">mobile: (505)577-5828</span></div><div><span style="font-size:12.8000001907349px">twitter: @simtable</span></div><div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><br></div></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Tue, Jul 2, 2019 at 4:13 PM Ron Newman <<a href="mailto:ron.newman@gmail.com">ron.newman@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr">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.</div><div dir="ltr"><br clear="all"><div><div dir="ltr" class="gmail-m_-2653560704152579839gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><font size="1"><font color="#666666">Ron Newman, M.S., M.M.E.</font></font></div><div dir="ltr"><font size="1"><font color="#666666">Founder, </font></font><a href="http://www.Ideatreelive.com" style="font-size:x-small" target="_blank">IdeaTreeLive.com</a> <span style="color:rgb(102,102,102);font-size:x-small">Knowledge Modeling</span></div><div dir="ltr"><div><font size="1"><a href="http://www.RonPiano.com" target="_blank">www.RonPiano.com</a></font></div><div><font size="1"><a href="https://blog.ideatreelive.com" target="_blank">Blog</a></font></div><div><font size="1"><font color="#666666"><br></font></font><br><br><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><br></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Tue, Jul 2, 2019 at 4:11 PM Ron Newman <<a href="mailto:ron.newman@gmail.com" target="_blank">ron.newman@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr">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.<div><br clear="all"><div><div dir="ltr" class="gmail-m_-2653560704152579839gmail-m_-1001871141152337641gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><font size="1"><font color="#666666">Ron Newman, M.S., M.M.E.</font></font></div><div dir="ltr"><font size="1"><font color="#666666">Founder, </font></font><a href="http://www.Ideatreelive.com" style="font-size:x-small" target="_blank">IdeaTreeLive.com</a> <span style="color:rgb(102,102,102);font-size:x-small">Knowledge Modeling</span></div><div dir="ltr"><div><font size="1"><a href="http://www.RonPiano.com" target="_blank">www.RonPiano.com</a></font></div><div><font size="1"><a href="https://blog.ideatreelive.com" target="_blank">Blog</a></font></div><div><font size="1"><font color="#666666"><br></font></font><br><br><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><br></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Tue, Jul 2, 2019 at 4:06 PM Tom Johnson <<a href="mailto:tom@jtjohnson.com" target="_blank">tom@jtjohnson.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr">Would not the corporation have to renew the patent at some point?<div>Tom<br clear="all"><div><div dir="ltr" class="gmail-m_-2653560704152579839gmail-m_-1001871141152337641gmail-m_412627774168517969gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><br>============================================<br>Tom Johnson - <a href="mailto:tom@jtjohnson.com" target="_blank">tom@jtjohnson.com</a><br>Institute for Analytic Journalism -- Santa Fe, NM USA<br>505.577.6482(c) 505.473.9646(h)<br><a href="http://nmfog.org" target="_blank"><b><font color="#0b5394">NM Foundation for Open Government</font></b></a><br><b><font color="#0000ff">Check out <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Its-The-Peoples-Data/1599854626919671" target="_blank">It's The People's Data</a></font></b> </div><div>============================================</div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><br></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Tue, Jul 2, 2019 at 3:55 PM Ron Newman <<a href="mailto:ron.newman@gmail.com" target="_blank">ron.newman@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr">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.<div><br></div><div>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?</div><div><br></div><div>Any IP attorneys here?</div><div><br clear="all"><div><div dir="ltr" class="gmail-m_-2653560704152579839gmail-m_-1001871141152337641gmail-m_412627774168517969gmail-m_2058077633132239907gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><font size="1"><font color="#666666">Ron Newman, M.S., M.M.E.</font></font></div><div dir="ltr"><font size="1"><font color="#666666">Founder, </font></font><a href="http://www.Ideatreelive.com" style="font-size:x-small" target="_blank">IdeaTreeLive.com</a> <span style="color:rgb(102,102,102);font-size:x-small">Knowledge Modeling</span></div><div dir="ltr"><div><font size="1"><a href="http://www.RonPiano.com" target="_blank">www.RonPiano.com</a></font></div><div><font size="1"><a href="https://blog.ideatreelive.com" target="_blank">Blog</a></font></div><div><font size="1"><font color="#666666"><br></font></font><br><br><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>
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