We recently posted a blog explaining three laws that had potential to shake up New Jersey Employment Law. One of them, the new law regarding the matter of protecting employee ownership & usage rights (A-492) which is sponsored by Assembly Speaker-elect Craig Coughlin & Assemblyman Herb Conaway, Jr., M.D. was signed into law recently. It will be effective April 1, 2018 and will apply to collective bargaining agreements after that date. This bill is to protect employee rights to the ownership and usage of inventions developed entirely on the employee’s own time and without using an employer’s resources.
“If someone invents something using their own resources on their own time, their employer has no right to claim that invention,” said Conaway (D-Burlington). “People should feel confident that their intellectual property will be protected. This law will provide that protection by codifying into New Jersey law that employers don’t have a property interest in inventions created by their employees on their own time, without the use of the employer’s resources, and unrelated to the employer’s business.”
Specifically, the law prohibits an employment contract between an employee and employer that requires the assignment by the employee of any employee invention developed entirely on the employee’s own time and without using the employer’s resources. However, this prohibition does not apply to any invention that relates to the employer’s business or actual or demonstrably anticipated research or development, or results from any work performed by the employee on behalf of the employer. To the extent that any provision in an employment contract applies, or intends to apply, to any employee invention falling under the scope of the law, that provision is deemed against the public policy of this State and therefore unenforceable.
Rest assured inventors, if you’re inventing something on the side completely unrelated to your everyday job and with your own resources, your employer cannot take that away from you (some instances may apply where they may be able to though).