I would probably agree to the first clause as its fairly standard and "in the course of his work" would generally not be after hours so long as it had nothing to do with their business area. Its also unlikely that you'd be pursued. However #2 is not reasonable. Unless you're hard up, I'd negotiate it.
In the area of open source contributions as part of your work, this is generally achievable by selling "hi, you don't want to maintain this" to your boss and having him sign off on your contributions to said project in the course of your work. Note that I did choose employers (while I had the luxury) that would have no conceivable legitimate claim to POI while I was still working for companies. However, this was largely paranoid. However, I did work for a company, a few years back, that is rather involved in POI now. Fortunately, POI wasn't even on the drawing board at the time and therefore they'd have no claim. However, had I worked for them while working on POI its conceivable that they might have said something. At the end of the day, everything is a "business risk". Anyone can sue you or not pay you for any reason. Therefore, you need to measure whether or not you're willing to take the risk. Look at it this way. If you get sued for working on an open source project after hours, you'll make headlines and probably not be wanting for a job at least so long as you're the good guy in the story. Things to be careful of: 1. Using company equipment (your laptop for instance) 2. Working on company property, time, business trips. 3. Working in an area which coincides with your companies business For instance, if you work for a company that does reporting systems, don't work on an open source reporting system without permission in writing. -Andy On 6/21/03 6:59 PM, "Mitch Amiano" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > An opportunity is presenting itself, and I need to ask a question for those of > you who are active as consultants and independant contractors. > > Specifically, what do you find acceptable when it comes to contract > non-compete clauses, and clauses involving assignment of ideas? I'm > especially interested in hearing from those of you who are engaged in open > source projects. > > My concern is that these clauses are wide open for abuse and broad > interpretation. I have no interest in pursuing another company's clients in a > specific business area. Yet the technology market is quite a broad area and > if my company for instance offered XML training on the open market, a > non-compete with another consultancy would effectively prevent me from taking > business (at least, not without a legal cloud hanging over my head). > > Likewise, the "any and all inventions" clause has the hair on the back of my > neck standing up. Perhaps moreso, because I've got a few back-burner open > source projects, and other ideas, that could get entangled. > > I'm not asking for legal advice (on the off-chance that one of you is a > qualified lawyer, I'll still listen!) but more for your experience. > > Tanks in advance > - Mitch > > > Sample clauses are included below, for your consideration.... > > Assignment Of Inventions: > Any and all inventions and/or improvements and/or discoveries, whether > patentable or not, which Consultant conceives and/or makes in the course of > performance of the work, or as a result of the knowledge obtained by > Consultant of any technical information covered by the confidentiality > provisions of clause 5, shall be the sole and exclusive property of The > Corporation and Consultant shall promptly disclose and cause to be disclosed > to The Corporation, all such inventions, improvements and discoveries and, at > the election of The Corporation, cause the execution and assignment to The > Corporation of patent applications and letters patent thereon > > Non Compete: > During the term of this agreement and for a period of two years thereafter, > Consultant shall have no business dealings whatsoever, directly or indirectly, > with respect to any product that is or could be competitive with the products > of The Corporation in connection with which services are rendered hereunder by > Consultant, including any mentioned on the Project Statement of Work and any > which The Corporation subsequently notifies Consultant that utilize the Work. > The parties agree that this restriction is reasonable in light of the payments > to be made to Consultant hereunder. > > > _______________________________________________ > Juglist mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://trijug.org/mailman/listinfo/juglist_trijug.org -- Andrew C. Oliver http://www.superlinksoftware.com/poi.jsp Custom enhancements and Commercial Implementation for Jakarta POI http://jakarta.apache.org/poi For Java and Excel, Got POI? _______________________________________________ Juglist mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://trijug.org/mailman/listinfo/juglist_trijug.org
