Code written on work time with company resources belongs to the company; do personal open-source projects on your own time and equipment, and do not mix in company code

Software written mainly with company equipment, intranet, or business data, for which the company bears responsibility, has copyright belonging to the company; you keep only the right of authorship — and the same if the contract so provides. Code written after hours may still count as the company’s if you used a company computer or business data. Inventions made mainly with company resources also have patents belonging to the company

Cost

No money spent. When you join, read the intellectual-property clauses in the labor contract carefully. The hard part is that personal projects and company work often share one computer and must be kept apart

Benefit

Works created to complete the unit’s work tasks are works for hire (things made while doing the job). In the ordinary case copyright belongs to the author; the unit has priority to use them within its business scope, and for 2 years the author may not license third parties to use them in the same way. But two kinds of cases differ. One is engineering designs, software, and similar works created mainly with the unit’s material and technical conditions, for which the unit bears responsibility. The other is works the contract assigns to the unit. In both, the author keeps only the right of authorship. The unit’s material and technical conditions means company equipment, intranet, business data, and the like. Inventions completed while performing the unit’s tasks, or mainly using the unit’s material and technical conditions, are service inventions. The right to apply for a patent and the patent obtained both belong to the unit (nationwide)

Notes

Software is written directly into the “copyright belongs to the unit” category, so programmers almost never fall into the “copyright belongs to the author, unit has two-year priority use” tier. “Written after hours” can still be treated as mainly made with the unit’s equipment and materials if you used a company computer, intranet, or company business data. To keep a personal project clean, use your own machine, do not touch company repositories, and do not overlap company business.

Sources · 2

1. 全国人大常委会 (2020). 著作权法（2020 年修正，第十八条）. npc.gov.cn/npc/c2/c30834/202011/t20201119_308…
2. 全国人大常委会 (2020). 专利法（2020 年修正，第六条）. npc.gov.cn/npc/c2/c30834/202011/t20201119_308…