Memo: It's mine, all mine!
I wrote a memo the other day. That in itself isn't something to blog about, but it was an interesting experience, as the purpose of writing the memo was to inform my employer that they had no claim on any of the fiction I've written. You'd think this would be obvious, but I wanted to be careful. Since my company is a Federally Funded Research Lab, they own everything I do with one exception:
IP which a) is outside the professional field for which the employee is hired, b) is outside any sponsored research carried out at [the company] in the broad scope of its technical research and development programs, and c) made no significant use of [company] administered facilities and/or funds in its creation, will be owned by the creating employee(s), with the concurrence of the Director’s Office and the TLO.
My favorite part is that it has to be outside the professional field for which I was hired and outside the scope of the research anyone at my company is doing. My understanding is that this is a federal requirement, since my company is federally funded. Fortunately, my fiction qualifies on all counts (with caveats), but according to the policy, I needed to run it by the Director's Office first, and they suggested I write the memo, which would assert that these stories were 1) written on my own time, 2) in the genre of fantasy and horror, which doesn't seem important but is, 3) without using company equipment or materials, and 4) outside my professional field.
Which is fine for the things I think may be published in the near future, but this does lead me to some questions. First, what if I'm on a business trip and decide to write a story using my company supplied laptop while on the plane or in my hotel room? Do they then own that story? What if I'm at home and I'm using a company pen to mark some changes on a draft I printed out from my own computer and printer? I suppose I really shouldn't be taking company pens home in the first place, but I don't empty my pockets of writing instruments before I go home. Besides, I'm just as likely to bring my pens into work as to take theirs home, so I figure it evens out. Now, I'm pretty sure using a company pen doesn't count as significant use of company resources, but looking through the administrative note on the policy, typing on the laptop might.
And what if I decide to write a science fiction story? I've written those in the past, though not recently. Is that considered in my professional field? What is my professional field? I do radar stuff now, but I was a superconducting quantum computation guy when they hired me. Even if I avoid talking about anything I've ever worked on personally, it's bound to include elements relating to what someone here is doing. Now I don't intend to be technical in my stories, or reveal any proprietary information, but I think I'd need a new memo.
Fortunately, I have a pretty good relationship with my company (at least until they see this blog entry), and I'm hoping they won't be unreasonable, but it's enough to make me a bit nervous.
