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Curious as to what happens in my situation. Initially, I wrote some software for myself to make my job easier. Over time it ballooned into a tool used by the entire group. I worked on it on and off company time and writing software is completely outside of my job responsibilities.
Is this software mine or is it now company owned?
check your contract... but my guess (and this is standards practice) is that since a portion of it was developed on company time, presumably with company equipment (computer, software, etc) ... it belongs to the company.
-tg
If the company wants to claim ownership, it is unlikely that you will find it economically feasible to fight over it. I'd say that you have a gray area if you spent any significant amount of work time or resources on developing the tool, but that doesn't mean a thing. What ultimately matters is how the company will respond and why. If it turns into a legal battle, you'd have to balance an honest expectation of gain against an honest accounting of the cost, and do so before either of those can be truly understood. If the tool has commercial value, how much? Can you form a reasonable estimate of the likely net profit? If so, then you have a means to evaluate the gain. However, if you just assume that the tool will make you a gazillion dollars, then you might be drawn into a fight that you will ultimately lose, regardless of the outcome. After all, the cost will be appreciable, as you will lose time, money, and potentially, employment. The aggravation alone should be factored into the mix. Perhaps you can win, but only after a vexing and stressful legal fight. If so, then is the gain worth that?
Of course, companies will make the same evaluation. If the tool is not something they will market, and not something that might compete against them, in their view, then they may simply say that it's yours. Of course, if you DO intend to market the tool, you probably want the question of ownership cleared up, in writing, before you go to market.
As an addendum to what TG said, many of us don't have contracts to check, which is where an evaluation of cost/benefit comes in.