Okay, so the situation is a bit complicated. I would love some advice from anyone who has been through this before or knows how to protect yourself from these situations. I'll try to keep explanation simple.
So, I am a 25 year old Marketing Manager with a nation wide tire distributor, but I look after the retail division meaning we own retail stores that sell the product. Anyway, as my background is in computer sciences I took it on myself to design our intranet for our retail stores in the past. The intranet basically allows us to post content and store managers can read it - we have a training plugin designed by a 3rd party that allows them to take training if they'd like. I mostly designed it on my spare time, which is another story, but basically spent a year wanting to go the extra mile and move up with this company (like a slow laner!) Anyway, I have built 2 of these before for other companies and there is nothing proprietary about them......
In January I decided to start my fastlane journey and began building a software on the web. It's nothing like the one I built at work- my software is kind of like an intranet but allows companies or smaller businesses even to implement a full scale people management platform including hiring processes, onboarding, management, training, etc. The problem is, my boss had been asking a long time ago for us to begin building an HR program for our stores and I never got around to it on company time. Basically I just chose I wanted to create my own advanced version of an HR and training technology and sell it- It has a feature that allows you to write company messages and feature them on the homepage when your employees log in. In my opinion it is nothing like our work intranet, but i could see how one might think one inspired the other. However, I have designed 3 intranets now for different employers- people might own the intranet itself and the code you write, but the idea is not proprietary. HR systems are not proprietary either, I am not stealing any content whatsoever.
I believe my stores I manage at work would be great first users of the site to prove that it works. Basically my question is, are there any steps I should take to protect the ownership of my software? I have never worked on it on company time, and I've never worked on it with company equipment. My boss is a very open person, I was thinking of writing him a letter and full-disclosure tell him I am building a software and disclose that I am not using company times or tech to do it- just be completely honest?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
So, I am a 25 year old Marketing Manager with a nation wide tire distributor, but I look after the retail division meaning we own retail stores that sell the product. Anyway, as my background is in computer sciences I took it on myself to design our intranet for our retail stores in the past. The intranet basically allows us to post content and store managers can read it - we have a training plugin designed by a 3rd party that allows them to take training if they'd like. I mostly designed it on my spare time, which is another story, but basically spent a year wanting to go the extra mile and move up with this company (like a slow laner!) Anyway, I have built 2 of these before for other companies and there is nothing proprietary about them......
In January I decided to start my fastlane journey and began building a software on the web. It's nothing like the one I built at work- my software is kind of like an intranet but allows companies or smaller businesses even to implement a full scale people management platform including hiring processes, onboarding, management, training, etc. The problem is, my boss had been asking a long time ago for us to begin building an HR program for our stores and I never got around to it on company time. Basically I just chose I wanted to create my own advanced version of an HR and training technology and sell it- It has a feature that allows you to write company messages and feature them on the homepage when your employees log in. In my opinion it is nothing like our work intranet, but i could see how one might think one inspired the other. However, I have designed 3 intranets now for different employers- people might own the intranet itself and the code you write, but the idea is not proprietary. HR systems are not proprietary either, I am not stealing any content whatsoever.
I believe my stores I manage at work would be great first users of the site to prove that it works. Basically my question is, are there any steps I should take to protect the ownership of my software? I have never worked on it on company time, and I've never worked on it with company equipment. My boss is a very open person, I was thinking of writing him a letter and full-disclosure tell him I am building a software and disclose that I am not using company times or tech to do it- just be completely honest?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
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