Ownership of Work Created by Employees

The general rule is that employers own the work of their employees created while on the job. In fact, as discussed in Chapter 10, under copyright law, if a work is made for hire, the employer, not the employee, is considered the author of the work.

Although it seems that these general principles should be sufficient to protect employers, employees may attempt to defeat the legal presumptions and claim ownership of their work and inventions by alleging that they created the work on their own time or that they are not employees but rather independent contractors and thus own the fruits of their labor.

There is probably no definitive way to prove where an employee created a work product; however, employers ...

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