Slashdot Mirror
Can I Be Fired For Refusing To File a Patent?
An anonymous reader writes "I am a developer for a medium-sized private technology company getting ready for an IPO. My manager woke up one morning and decided to patent some stuff I did recently. The problem is, I'm strongly opposed to software patents, believing that they are stifling innovation and dragging the technology industry down (see all the frivolous lawsuits reported here on Slashdot!). Now, my concern is: what kind of consequences could I bring on myself for refusing to support the patent process? Has anybody been in a similar position and what was the outcome?"
Just patent the process of firing someone for refusing to file a patent.
Then they'll have to license the technology to be able to use it against you.
Frivolous patents are evil.
IANAL, but I'm pretty sure there's only a small set of things you can't be fired for in the US, like race, and anything else is legal.
You can't be fired for religious belief. Join the church of GNU. it already has a saint
This comment sounds like the next generation of those spam bots that make paragraphs of random words _sort of_ look like a coherent thoughts. It's getting close, but work on it some more.
-- I ignore anonymous replies to my comments and postings.
I'm so glad we're on the same page. You're the kind of innovative, can-do individual we need to enhance our organisational synergy.
We must calendar some face-time to discuss how better to engage our value customers with a view to leveraging our key threshold activities to achieve ongoing transformation.
sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f(q{sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f});
Someone probably yelled BINGO! after that last sentence, so he stopped.
If he isn't telling you the truth, it is because you don't want to hear the truth.
You can't handle the truth!
Signed, Jack Nicholson.