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Does Drawing on Experience Infringe on Other's IP?

Posted by Cliff on from the stuff-to-think-about dept.

Daniel Paull asks: "I recently asked one of our developers to draw up a design for a specific component. After a few hours he returns telling me that he'd solved a very similar problem a previous place of employment and that they had developed a "neat" solution. The developer then became concerned that a ground-up re-implementation of these design patterns and principals may infringe on the other companies intellectual property or breach some copyright laws. This developer is talented and experienced - that's why we hired him. The question is, at what point does 'drawing on experience' cross the line and invade others IP?"

3 of 374 comments (clear)

  1. It doesn't.. in my book.. by thrillbert · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I am now, a Sr. Network Engineer. But before doing this, I have been everything from a system admin, to a security engineer, to a coder/developer. For me, drawing up on past experience is a total necessity because in the time I've been doing this, I *HAVE* seen it all.

    From recreating scripts to poll routers, to re-writting perl scripts that poll servers, this is all stuff I've seen/wrote/used before. And even in a larger magnitude, setting up policies or procedures for doing things which I implemented elsewhere. If *I* came up with them, why should someone else tell me I can't use them because I came up with them while I was employed by them?

    Sorry, that would be infringing on my ability to earn a living.

    ---
    IANAL, but if I were, we'd all be in trouble!

  2. Re:Standing on the Shoulders of Giants... by Shalome · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Heh.. agreed, to some extent... but I was referring to the method of problem solving, not the line-by-line copying of a module of code... If the engineer had solved the problem previously, then he had a good idea how to engineer the solution to the current problem.

    --
    Moderation totals that amuse me for one of my posts: Flamebait=1, Insightful=2, Funny=2, Overrated=1, Underrated=1
  3. Experience != IP by Capt_Troy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Experience and IP are two different things. This guy learned from past experience. Now he can apply that to solve a similar problem. If he hacked in and copied the code, that is different.

    If you try to open a door differently each time, pretty soon you will be standing on your head trying to turn a knob with your feet.

    This guy needs to do the best job he can for the company that hires him. If he refuses because he did something similar at another company, then you might as well just let him go.

    T