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Countering IP Agreements?
Ghettoimp asks: "I'm a grad student considering an offer for a summer internship with a large software company. The offer is appealing but has a horrible IP agreement which gives them the rights to work I create while I'm there, *and* rights to work I've created in the past. I proposed a counter-agreement but it seems quite clear that the terms are non-negotiable, and I have little reason to believe that this situation is different anywhere else that would be interested in hiring me (e.g., defense contractors, research labs). The agreement does let me list explicit items to exclude from this, and gives me space for four items. I am thinking about instead attaching a list of every program I have ever worked on at all. I know this won't give me any control over what I work on while I'm there, but could this be a viable strategy for keeping ownership of the programs I have already written? I just want to know that I will be able to use, distribute, and talk about my own work in the future without worrying about some ridiculous lawsuit."
I was given a similar IP agreement to sign at one point. And their stated concern was indeed for the protection of the company against future IP claims.
So, given that, I was able to have the agreement ammended to state that the company has a perpetural, transferable, non-exclusive right to use and make derivative works from any such previous software that was not explicitly excluded.
I was much happier with this, and the company had the same protection that they claimed they needed the clause for.