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Life Guide U.S. essentials
English

Code written during work hours or with company resources belongs to the company; do your own open-source projects on your own time and equipment, with no company code mixed in

  • Moderate value
  • Evidence A
  • Saves money
  • Free
  • Takes minutes
  • Some willpower

In plain words

For software written mainly with the company's equipment, internal network or business data, and for which the company bears responsibility, the copyright belongs to the company and you keep only the right to be named as author. The same holds if your contract says so. Code written after work also may count as the company's if it used a company computer or business data. An invention made with company resources also has its patent belong to the company.

Cost

Free. When you start a job, read the intellectual property clause in your labor contract carefully. The hard part is that personal projects and company work often sit on the same computer, so you have to separate them.

What you get

A work created to carry out a company's work task is a work made in the course of employment (what you make while doing your job). In the usual case the copyright belongs to the author, the company has the right to use it first within its business scope, and for 2 years the author may not license a third party to use it in the same way. But two kinds of cases are different. One is engineering designs, software and similar works created mainly with the company's material and technical resources and for which the company bears responsibility. The other is works that the contract says belong to the company. For these two kinds the author keeps only the right to be named. The company's material and technical resources means things like the company's equipment, internal network and business data. For an invention made in carrying out the company's tasks, or made mainly with the company's material and technical resources, it is a service invention (职务发明), and both the right to apply for a patent and the patent itself belong to the company (nationwide)

Notes

Software is written straight into the category of "copyright belongs to the company," so a programmer almost never falls into the tier of "copyright belongs to the author, with the company having first use for two years." Code "written after work" can still be counted as made mainly with the company's equipment and materials if it used a company computer, internal network or business data. To keep a personal project clean, use your own machine, don't touch the company repository, and don't overlap with the company's business.

Evidence grade
A : Specific numbers from meta-analyses, large cohorts or randomized trials; for law and policy, the statute or official text.
Sources
  1. 全国人大常委会 (2020). 著作权法（2020 年修正，第十八条）. http://www.npc.gov.cn/npc/c2/c30834/202011/t20201119_308796.html
  2. 全国人大常委会 (2020). 专利法（2020 年修正，第六条）. http://www.npc.gov.cn/npc/c2/c30834/202011/t20201119_308800.html

Mentioned in

Translated from the Chinese original. Original book, section 11, tip 13. This section describes legal rules, mostly mainland China’s. It is general information, not legal advice; for your own case, talk to a lawyer. Content may be out of date and rules differ by place. When you actually deal with an agency, a doctor or a court, follow what local officials, doctors and lawyers tell you. Disclaimer