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Ask Slashdot: Handling Patented IP In a Job Interview?
ZahrGnosis writes I'm in the midst of a rather lengthy job interview; something I haven't done for some time as I've worked as a contract employee with a much lower barrier to entry for years. Recently, I've started patenting some inventions that are applicable to my industry. One hope is that the patents look good to the prospective employer on a resume, but I don't want them to take the existing IP for granted as part of the deal. I'm worried I have the wrong attitude, however. My question is, how should I treat licensing of the patent as a topic with respect to the topic of my employment? Should I build the use of my patented ideas into my salary? Should I explicitly refuse to implement my patented IP for the company without a separate licensing fee? If I emphasize the patent during the interviews without the intent to give them the IP for free, is that an ethical lapse — a personal false advertising? At the same time, when I work for a company I feel they should get the benefit of my full expertise... am I holding back something I shouldn't by not granting a de-facto license while I work for them? I perceive a fine balance between being confrontational and helpful, while not wanting to jeopardize the job prospect nor restrict my ability to capitalize on my invention. Thoughts?
For each job it will be different.
How good is the salary already?
How much of the value of hiring you is your porfolio, and how much is your blood and sweat value-add?
If Nasa wants to hire you as a $50k per year janitor so they can use your warp field equations, it's different than if Amazon wants you to be their Cheif Architect and incidently likes your 5-prop drone patent.
Create proper price tags in your porfolio for the value of your patents, whether it's per-click or per sold unit. If you get a dream job, like janitor on the ISS, throw them in for free. If it's not, offer a discount, or say they aren't included.
If so then fuck off.
If it is not part of the deal then leave it off your resume.
I think you are confusing two different situations in an interview situation.
1. You working for a company.
2. A company licensing your patents.
Leave the patents out of the process at this point.
If you want to money for use of your patents, go sell patent licenses. If you want a job, be clear that you are there to work and your patented work is off limits (I am assuming you personally hold the patents). When we interview patent holders I grill them on the patent since it is clear piece of representative work I have access to, but I have never considered that their patents come along for the ride (usually they are owned by some other company).
When it comes to proprietary IP that is not patented, I steer a wide berth to avoid any chance of making it look like they need to share their protected knowledge to pass the interview. If it is on their resume I generally ask for enough description to understand the gyst of what they are working on and will ask industry standard design questions, but I do my best to stay far away from anything that makes them squirm.
Seriously, talk to a lawyer. I am not at all versed in various IP /employment laws and I assume you are not either. I have no idea what can go wrong, but you need to know these things. Have that lawyer read anything you are going to sign. You do not want to sign away your rights accidentally. Once you know the finer details of the relevant case law, you can decide how you want to approach it. If you are an employee and you do not want to share your patents and your employer uses them anyway, what happens then? Are you going to sue your employer? Corporations are soulless entities that will suck whatever life/power out of you that you let them. Work on the assumption they are out to screw you and prepare appropriately.
The idiots that tell you that they would never hire anyone who has a patent are just that, idiots.
I own a successful company with nearly 100 employees. The fact that you have patents shows that you're not just a run-of-the-mill employee like these wannabes who are decrying the fact that you have a patent. Of course if you come to work for me, you will sign an agreement signing anything you invent while you work for me to my company. That is part and parcel of the deal these days. I would not consider you to be a problem employee I would hope and expect that while you work for me he would generate patents for me. If the idea of generating patents for me and not getting any other benefit out of it chafes at you, then you should not be out searching for a job. You should instead find a way to monetize and licensure patents so that you can work as an individual inventor and secure more patents for yourself.
If your patents were somehow relevant to my business, then we would potentially have a separate discussion about licensing. If you got the patent and you own the patent then any financial value to it is yours not mine. I think it is wrong of me is employer to expect you to just give me the use of your patent. If you feel like it, then go ahead. Especially as some have mentioned if it's a dream job and the commercial value of your patent is not much.
If your patent was somehow a fundamental advantage to my business, I would want to license it from you and keep it out of the hands of my competitors. Or at the very least negotiate most favorable terms from you.
So no, I see no situation where you owning a patent would be a disadvantage. Unless, of course, you're trying to get a job with some Slashdot pinhead.
For each job it will be different.
No, and no.
Patented IP belongs to the patent holder. Employment is a different issue altogether. Under normal circumstances, they are legally completely separate issues... so why would you want to mess that up?
If you want employment, make an employment agreement. If you want to sell, lease, rent, or royalty-license your patents, then do that.
Why would you want to confuse these things and mix them up?
It's worse than that. If the company you apply for a job at has any interest in the patents, chances are that they will not offer you a job.
The problem is that you selling/licensing patents to them while an employee will easily be seen as a conflict of interest.
If they want you and the patents, I believe they may require you to sign over any and all IP to them as terms of employment, compensated by a signing bonus.
I think that would depend on whether you were producing new inventions while in their employ, or simply licensing preexisting patents to them. I don't see any conflict of interest in the latter.
In fact that brings up another important, and related, issue - look at that employment contract *carefully*, it's quite common for an employer to claim ownership of all "IP" you produce while you are in their employ, including stuff created completely on your own time. The rationale being that you were probably at least thinking about it on their time. Supposedly most employers are quite negotiable on that bit beforehand, they may even have alternate contracts at the ready, but if you don't catch it when you sign your contract then they've got you by the short hairs.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
Just create a company to hold the patents. Hire consultant to negotiate licensing in exchange for a cut of the royalties. You keep the rest as sole shareholder.
This leaves you with most of the profits while putting the licensing at arms length.