David
There are several reasons why a company may not wish something
published. Your employers, strictly speaking, are within their rights.
However, in such cases, it is usual to simply withdraw the litigious
phrases from your presentation, by mutual agreement and let the bulk go
through normally.
Whether you worked in your time or your employer's is totally irrelevant
in most cases: most employment contracts throughout the world contain an
intellectual property clause giving all your rights to the employer.
Anything that has not been published from previous employments (or the
periods thereof) and cannot be proved as to when count as if they were
done during the present employment. On the other hand, if there is
documentary evidence that the information existed before you left an
employment, it would belong to that employer. Under neither circumstance
does it belong to you, assuming usual employment contracts.
If an employer offers you a waiver to publish something in your own
right, then this is on their terms. Hypothetically, if your previous
employment was competitive or even complementary to your present one,
then your present employers can vet the papers to see whether there is
anything which they can construe as being against their interests. Even
if in your own time, as they own "your" intellectual property, they are
also liable for any boo-boos you make. Clearly, if such a waiver exists,
any presentation and incumbent expenses would be entirely in your own
time and at your charge.
Whereas I sympathise with your predicament, I would give at least a 95%
chance you haven't got a leg to stand on. If you press the matter too
hard, you may find yourself looking for another job and your paper will
belong to them and you will lose all rights to it, other than the fact
that your name should always be appended as a co-author. Sorry, but
that's the way life is.
Brian
David Douthit wrote:
>
> On May 17th I was scheduled to present a paper titled “Conformal
> Coatings and Harsh Environments” at the Fourth Joint DoD/FAA/NASA
> Conference on Aging Aircraft.
>
> On Tuesday morning May 16th I was informed by my current employer that
> not only was
> I not going to be allowed to present the paper but that I was not to
> discuss the contents of this paper with anyone. The reason given was it
> was a possible “Conflict Of Interest” (COI).
>
> This paper represents over 7 years of research (4 years while working
> for my current employer) and first hand experience (gained while working
> for a previous employer).
> All of the research work was done on my own time and at my own expense.
> I have made 5 previous presentations on this subject and have been
> published twice.
> My current employer was aware of this previous activity and was also
> aware of the May 17th
> presentation months ahead of time.
>
> The presentation was stopped by one person who is located 2000 miles and
> 2 divisions away from my current working area (my current job has
> absolutely nothing to do with anything contained in the paper). During a
> conversation I had with this person I was informed he did not agree with
> certain parts of my paper but other areas had merit. This is the reason
> he stopped the paper.
>
> The most painful moment of my professional career was telling a room
> full of my fellow professionals at the conference, that after 7 years
> plus thousands of hours and dollars of my own time and money, I could
> not talk to them!
>
> I consider the decision of this one individual to stop the presentation
> and publication of my paper an insult to the technical paper selection
> committees for the SAE AEMR98 conference, the APEX2000 conference (Jack
> Crawford!! I hope you are listening. You are about to get a very
> interesting phone call!), the Aging Aircraft Conference, and the
> Binghamton University Developments in Advanced Packaging Reliability
> Symposium (for which I was selected to be one of instructors July
> 31st-August 2nd). I do not believe I will be allowed to attend this
> symposium!
>
> A bigger insult is to you, my fellow professionals. It denies you the
> opportunity to review, discuss, and critique my work because one person
> does not agree with some of the issues in my paper. But the biggest
> danger is the insult to the entire conference process. The censoring of
> individual personal efforts dilutes the quality and lowers the quantity
> of useful information and ideas presented in these meetings.
>
> If this censorship continues I may be forced into the ludicrous position
> of being the only truck driver in the world writing papers and making
> presentations on electronic equipment reliability and contamination!
>
> Currently, no decision has been made as to whether or not a conflict of
> interest really exists (I don’t hold much hope for a favorable answer).
> I am not allowed to distribute copies of my own paper (even though it
> has been published by the IPC and is the public domain - I think??!!) I
> cannot communicate with anyone outside my company about the contents of
> this paper. I don’t even know if I will be allowed to continue the work
> I have been doing on three IPC committees. (Hello Jack! My company may
> want to review my efforts on the coating handbook committee for
> “Conflicts of Interest”!)
>
> The level of my frustration and anger is far beyond measure!
>
> Thank you letting me “vent my spleen”.
>
> David A. Douthit
>
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--
Brian Ellis
Protonique SA
PO Box 78
CH-1032 Romanel-sur-Lausanne, Switzerland
Voice: +41 21-648 23 34 Fax: +41 21-648 24 11
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URL: Technical and consultancy divisions:
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