Dispute over the software that I used to complete my task for our company [closed]

Question

my friend and I set up a e-commerce company together as %50-%50 partnership. My part of work was get product information from websites and keep the inventory accurate for our online store. We do not have any written agreement over task division among company. Since my friend has no coding skills, I was doing that part.

I have developed a web scrapper from scratch on my personal computer and the software was running on my personal computer as well. I took the software from updating an Excel file to web store daily to updating the web store inventory with webstore's provided API continuously. Since software does all my work, I look like I am not doing anything.

Now we are dissolving the partnership and there is dispute over the software. He states that it belongs to company and I should leave it. But It did not feel right to me because I created it to do my part and that does not make it companies property. During the software development none of company's resources has been used. Since we split the profit %50-%50, I was not on payroll as software developer and paid to create that software. Also we would both ship the orders so there was no clear distinction on other job duties.

I would appreciate your inputs regarding this software ownership dispute since I don't know anyone to consult regarding this issue. Thank you all already!

P.S. We are located in NJ, USA

Answer 1

You seem to have worn two hats in this transaction:

1. Manager responsible for selecting software.
2. Developer of a software package.

Wearing Hat 1, you were responsible for selecting software with a license that meets the company's needs. There are many ways you could have done that. For example, if picking freeware you would need to check it was licensed for business use. It would have been very irresponsible to select software with a license that says "This license is valid only as long as Lamazone remains with the company.".

Back when you decided to develop the software you should have sorted out the terms and licensing. If you were doing it as part of your contribution to the company, it probably belongs to the company anyway. If it does not belong to the company, wearing Hat 1 you should have required, from yourself wearing Hat 2, a suitable license that meets the company's needs. To avoid self-dealing, you should have discussed the license with your co-owner and got his approval. Using it to do part of your job without a formal license strongly suggests that you developed it as part of your contribution to the company and the company owns it.

To fix all this now without paying a fortune to lawyers, I suggest offering your partner an exchange in which he drops any claim to company ownership of the software, so you can use it and license it to others, and you grant the company a perpetual source license to modify and use the software.

Answer 2

I'm not familiar with USA/NJ laws, but this seems really straightforward to me.

My part of work was get product information... ...Since my friend has no coding skills, I was doing that part.

You agreed you would do something and you decided to do it as an automated software. It was done within the company and what you both understood as "work" or your responsibility, and for the company. And therefore it's owned by the company.

Who owned the tools to create the software doesn't matter. Also, as a former entrepreneur I have to say that being an entrepreneur requires you to have a bit of good faith, and not to dive into disputes like this. I'm sure your partner made calls with his personal phone and wore a suit he had bought himself. Starting to argue that YOUR contribution was somehow more special for any reason is counter-productive.

Answer 3

So many wrong answers in here.

If there is no written contract between you and your friend, you own it. If you haven't licenced it as open source it's proprietary by default. That's why when you work for professional companies they specifically mention in their contract that any code you write during work time is owned by them.

Enforcing this is another matter however. It would require a lawyer. You could always document as much as you can now and then hit the company with a lawsuit later down the road if it becomes profitable.

Keep in mind though if he has documentation himself, such as email correspondence where you discuss ownership, he could use that against you in court.