Member Feedback Wanted: IEEE-USA Needs Help Protecting Inventor Rights

In November 2005, IEEE-USA began a campaign to pass inventor rights legislation in all 50 state legislatures. By establishing limits for employment agreements, the legislation would help clarify the sometimes thorny issue of when intellectual property belongs to an employee and when it can be claimed by their employer. A copy of the bill can be found online at  www.ieeeusa.org/policy/issues/inventorrights. Similar legislation has already passed in eight states. Now IEEE-USA needs help from U.S. IEEE members to get it passed in the remaining 42.

Our success in this endeavor will depend on our ability to prove to state legislatures that the bill will solve a real problem. To that end, we need to provide legislators with specific examples of unfair employment agreements that are harming engineers in their state.

IEEE-USA needs help from U.S. IEEE members to find examples of such unfair employment agreements. Please contact IEEE-USA's Russ Harrison if you (or any engineers you know) have:

• Had intellectual property that you created on your own time claimed by your employer, even though its creation had nothing to do with your job

• Been forced to help a former employer protect the employer’s intellectual property, without being compensated for your time

• Been required to sign an employment agreement that made unreasonable claims on your creative output

U.S. IEEE members are among the most creative and innovative American workers — but will only continue to be if they can reasonably expect to profit from their efforts. IEEE-USA's Inventors Rights bill will place reasonable restrictions on employers’ ability to claim intellectual property created by their employees, thereby encouraging all engineers to invent and innovate. But the bill will not become law without your help.

IEEE members who think they might be able to help are asked to contact IEEE-USA's Russ Harrison at +1 202 785 0017 or r.t.harrison@ieee.org. Submit your comments E-mail this page to a friend