Had an interesting proposition put to me last week, regarding the code I've been working on for the past 20 odd months. Basically it allows me to take and use the code as I see fit, with a percentage of any sales of the product being given to the company.
Not being very legally aware in this sort of situation, I wonder what would be the implications if the company name should be dissolved. Would I have complete ownership of the code I've been working on? I can see alot of companies being interested in the code, but seeing as 5 other employees of the company have been given the same deal and have now formed their own company, I wondered whether this would mean we both have joint ownership, or just own our own versions.
For the time being I've decided to look for another job, but work on a demo version of the product and make it available on the web for prospective clients to see what it can do. The other 5 employees are fortunate as they are taking current clients and have plenty of examples of what it can do. The problem for me is that they are working in the Education market and the look and feel are nothing like what I want to get across. Plus the fact that their code base is likely to change from mine and I don't think it would be ethical to use their sites as examples of what the code can do.
Several people have given me ideas of who to approach for business, and couple of others have said they might be interested in using it as a tool to offer their services to clients. If it works then it will be a potential money spinner and get me to point where I can get several friends involved to form our own company.
For once I'm quite optimistic about the future, as I've never had a viable product to sell or the seed of a business plan to get me working for myself. It's all a bit daunting, but I've started to make the first step, and supposedly that always the hard part.
