Does joining the OIN make you less employable?

[earthpigg]

Sooo I got an email from the Open Invention Network (http://www.openinventionnetwork.com/pat_license_agreement.php) to join. I assume, as a licensee (http://www.openinventionnetwork.com/pat_license_agreement.php) since 'members' are the huge corporations.

they sent me a list of all their licensees and members. Google is a licensee, as is Linux Mint and a few other projects. One individual is a licensee by his personal name (ie: not his project). when either I or Masonux join, I/Masonux will be the 59th Licensee.

im going over the pros and cons in my head of "Masonux" joining as a licensee or "My-birth-certificate-name" joining as a licensee.

birth cert pro:
-shows a personal and perpetual commitment, which i like.

birth cert con:
-will it make me less employable, potentially?

if i create something for a company, who then patents it...what then? part of my employment contract would no doubt specify that [company] owns any IP i create on their dollar. but would that employment contract even be valid, if i had a pre-existing contract with the OIN?

even if Company X has no idea and hires me, would that be fair to the company?


the focus of this post is asking about the direct impact on how employable this would be, if a company where to ask... keep the focus there, please.

[koenn]

you should check with a lawyer, but it will probably go like this :

what you create as an employee, belongs to your employer - by law, not by contract.
Your employer has no contract/agreement/license with OIN, so they happily remain owner of whatever you create in their employ no matter how many agreements you have with OIN

note the 'by law' - that's why you should check with a lawyer or otherwise find out the specifics of such law in your country / state.

If an employer (eg in an employment contract) also claims rights over what you create in your free time (but while being employed), you'll probably want to consider not signing that contract.

Whether being witn OIN would brand you a "freedom zealot" or an otherwise undesirable character that noone wants to employ, is a different issue :)

[newbie2]

Today, June 22, 2010, The Open Invention Network (OIN) announced that Canonical, the company that owns and produces the Ubuntu Linux distribution, joins its ranks as the first Associate Member.

Florian Mueller, founder and former director of the NoSoftwarePatents campaign and the founder of the FOSS Patents Blog had this to say about the announcement:
http://www.daniweb.com/news/story291830.html


Ubuntu daddy in patent class of its own : http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/06/22/canonical_oin_patent_defender/


To critics like Florian Mueller of FossPatents, all this sounds more like Skull & Bones than Semper Fi. “Canonical is known for being a strategic partner of IBM, and since IBM is the most influential force behind the OIN, that’s probably the reason why its membership status was upgraded,” he wrote me.

While Bergelt said the group’s definition of the Linux System is clearly listed on the group’s Web site, Mueller called those definitions arbitrary.

“It seems to me that the OIN is basically a strategic patent troll, a non-practicing entity owned by a small group of companies that can use it for its purposes against their competitors whenever they elect to do so, and the protection of Linux is just a pretext,” he wrote.

Most open source advocates disagree with Mueller. Pamela Jones of Groklaw believes it is Mueller who is engaged in FUD:

You know who I think would *really* love OIN to be transparent? Microsoft. Then it could avoid getting checkmated by OIN next time. Remember, it was OIN who blocked Microsoft’s attempted sale of anti-Linux patents to patent trolls last year. Florian didn’t do that. I didn’t do it. You didn’t do it. OIN did it.

And he thereby protected Linux from an evil machination designed to tie Linux to the railroad tracks, as I wrote at the time. For this one act alone, the community owes OIN our thanks to time indefinite. Yes. Really. I’m guessing that is why OIN is now a target for FUD attacks.
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/open-source/bergelt-calls-canonical-membership-part-of-new-oin-strategy/6736

:mrgreen: