Re: [FRIAM] Ownership of expired patent

Not a lawyer / this is my understanding. Yes, the firm owns the copyright to the code and is a form of intellectual property independent of patent. Copyright is owned by the author (or entity that had work-for-hire agreements) at the moment of creation. As an author or someone that had access t

Re: [FRIAM] Ownership of expired patent

P.S. A more subtle question is what if I rewrote the formerly-patented application in a different language. Does a work-for-hire cover ideas? I think it does. Ron Newman, M.S., M.M.E. Founder, IdeaTreeLive.com Knowledge Modeling www.RonPiano.com Blog

Re: [FRIAM] Ownership of expired patent

I think the patent, which is non-renewable, and the code implementing the patent are two separate things. The first they lose rights over, but the second is covered by a work-for-hire agreement since it could be used internally, or even sold as a product by the corporation without patent. But I co

Re: [FRIAM] Ownership of expired patent

Would not the corporation have to renew the patent at some point? Tom Tom Johnson - t...@jtjohnson.com Institute for Analytic Journalism -- Santa Fe, NM USA 505.577.6482(c)505.473.9646(h) *NM Foundation for Open

[FRIAM] Ownership of expired patent

I was awarded a software patent 30 years ago while at a corporate job. That patent has since expired, of course. I assume I signed a work-for-hire agreement the first day on that job. Now that it's expired, I also assume the corporation still owns the code, and so I'm not free to open source it.