Does Your Employer Own Your Thoughts?

MJ writes "Evan Brown has finally lost his 7 year court battle over ownership of thoughts in his brain. Judge Henderson of the 219th District Court in Collin County, Texas granted DSC Communications Corporation, Inc (now Alcatel, USA) a Final Judgement granting DSC ownership of Mr. Brown's idea of a reverse compiler that Mr. Brown claims to have begun formulating twelve years before his employment at DSC and during his off-time while at DSC. Mr. Brown has received media coverage in print, televion and on the Internet: The John Marshall Journal of Computer & Information Law, Wired, Computerworld. This rings similar to previous Slashdot articles on employer/employee IP rights."

You Know...

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd tell you what I think, but you're gonna have to ask my employer first.

Help protest this ruling...

[Radon Knight]

...by refusing to think at work!

They stole his ideas?

[duckandcoveranduck]

That's what happens when you don't wear your tinfoil hat.

Good thing...

[rd_syringe]

...I do no thinking at work, or I'd be worried by this judgment.

Re:Help protest this ruling...

[nEoN nOoDlE]

I've been protesting for years

Re:BIG BROTHER ALCATEL

[kfg]

Tell it to the patent office.

KFG

I tried that, it didn't work

[Pac]

They refused to promote me to management.

whatever

[Anonymous Coward]

Good, then they can deal with the sexual harrasment charges for my thoughts every time the new secratary bends over. When I get home, I'm usually thinking about the same thing but with my girlfriend. They can have all the weird intoxicated thoughts I get on the weekends and sudden urges to pull the fire alarm too.

obvious

[fonzer]

all your thoughts are belong to us

Re:Sadly, yes...

[1shooter]

In some ways, corporate America really treats employees like slave.

Maybe you should tell your boss how you are enslaved working there and perhaps you will be freed.

Re:Help protest this ruling...

[gardyloo]

Dude, if you're reading /. at work, they might just take that idea and patent it. Then we're all screwed.

Sucks to be him...

[Unnngh!]

First, he loses a court battle against a former employer.

Then his site loses a battle against slashdot.

Re:I tried that, it didn't work

[shigelojoe]

Did you send them a thank you card?

Re:Shop Around, Read the Fine Print

[MooseByte]

"This opened a can of worms: you have to think something before you can say it: thus, by extension, they own anything you say."

Oh I don't know about that - I have plenty of coworkers who seem to say plenty without thinking. Design review meetings in particular. :-)

Re:rather simple to protect yourself.

[Anonymous Coward]

f**kn p*****s

I'd like to buy a vowel Pat. I'd like a U!

Chilling effect ?

[elpapacito]

Let's make some safe assumption shall we :

1. The majority of companies that operate in your field of work choose to apply the "I own your inventions" provision as standard in contracts.

2. But you oppose it, on the reasonable grounds that

a)being employed in one company doesn't imply that the company helped develop/conceive the
idea even if the product is sold in the same market.

b)the burden of proof of misappropriation should be on the company, there shouldn't be a burden on inventor who patented the idea, as he's potentially disclosing the idea to the world by patenting it.

3. Therefore, you find yourself out of 80-100% of your job's market and are indirectly forced to get another job, at least until you find some better company in your field (which may never happen)

I can't think of anything more chilling to innovation and invention then a provision that says "everything you haven't disclosed to us before is likely to be ours" ; who in his right mind would ever -think- about inventing something in his field of works, knowing that a previous employer may sue the hell out of him and win, only because of the amount of money they have and the amount you don't ?

Re:Say it isn't so

[dgatwood]

Tatoo it on your arm. Then tell them it's your shrinkwrap license.

Re:What happens if he refuses to hand over the dat

[cpghost]

That's why he should use encryption:

# mount /dev/brain /mnt
Can't mount /dev/brain: no file system.

# gbde attach /dev/brain /etc/tortures/gotit.lock
Passphrase: ************
Sorry.

If they do, they should be charged with indeceny

[Anonymous Coward]

The company I work for should only own my thoughts if they want to move from software into porn.

Re:They stole his ideas?

[macdaddy357]

Since they want to own your thoughts, they probably don't allow tinfoil hats, which would stop them from using mind probes on you, but here's an Idea. Wear a wig over your tinfoil hat, so they won't see it.

Re:Say it isn't so

[hotbutteredhtml]

It's more like tattoo it on your ass. Then you can claim that they agreed to it when they hired you and that they could have read it at any time. You could even offer to show it to the court if need be.

Re:Read this if you've ever had a thought of your

[Doc Ruby]

In the future, all property will be owned by corporations, as their rights, and freedom from liability, dwarf that of humans. So everyone should have at least one corporation. Preferably multinational.

Re:Google's employees

[pommiekiwifruit]

Whereas google enables employees of other companies to spend considerably more time than that on their hobbies...

Mail your ideas

[iconara]

If you have a good idea, write it down, put it in an envelope, wrap duct tape around it, and mail it to yourself. Make sure that the date the date stamp on the envelope is legible when you get the envelope in the mail. Don't open it. Store it in a safe location.

When you need to prove that you had an idea first, you have quite a solid proof. Musicians do this all the time, some authors too.

Re:Say it isn't so

[MysteriousPreacher]

I saw a similar 'claw-back' clause in a company where I used to work. In order to do your job, you had to be sent on training and they made everyone sign contracts stating that if you left within two years, you would have to pay a certain amount of money back.

I think they tried to enforce it but the letters they sent weren't very effective. In hindsight, they should have sent a few Dilbert cartoons. It would have been almost as funny and a lot easier to take seriously.