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Comment by bob33212 | Hacker News Reader

Send this letter to your manager and your manager's manager.

[Manager Names]

My time at [Company Name] has been a great experience. It has been a pleasure working with you. As you may know I created [ Open source project ] on [Date] and have enjoyed growing the product and user base. Building and supporting successful products is something I enjoy and will be looking for opportunities to do that outside of my current role. [Day 2 weeks from now] will be my last day at [Company]

Best of Luck

Then you can negotiate from a place of power. Don't say anything about your plans other than that you are going to pursue other opportunities. At a minimum they will make you a counter offer, something like 10% pay increase and a new title of "Product Director". It is up to you if you want to negotiate something different like back pay or if you want to try to create a new product from scratch on your own or if you want to find another job.

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This advice is absurd.

OP: My employer wants IP I've created. I want to negotiate compensation for it.

Your advice: Start by sending them a resignation letter.

Negotiations are all about relationships and starting by triggering others fears of abandonment is not the way to collaborate to a mutually beneficial option.

I would suggest that the OP asks the if the employer would be open to discussing what he wants "given the additional value I'd be providing the company, I'm wondering if we could discuss my compensation and control over the project and any interests you may have?", and seek legal advice if he's not confident asking.

It's important that the as initial ask is not phrased as anything extortionary ("give me x or I will/won't do x") as that kind of talk is more likely to trigger legal concerns.

In that case the employer is going to hear " I want more money because I think you owe it to me". It is very easy for the employer to respond with "We don't feel the same way because X,Y and Z reasons or we cannot afford to pay you for the work you did for free".

Negotiations are about leverage. Having a good relationship with someone is great. But they are not going to give you a big chunk of money because the like you. They are going to give you a big chunk of money because they need to you stay on when you are on your way out the door.

Right, and that's where the negotiation begins. You'll be able to find a better outcome once you know what X, Y and Z are. Leverage in itself assumes that one party has to lose. But there are also negotatied outcomes where both parties are better off. For what it's worth, I'm an employer and although my employees have IP agreements I'd want them to feel real good if the business wanted their side project.

In some EU countries that resignation letter wouldn't be legally accepted, given the required notice period.

On the other hand, it is usually not legal for the employer to have any right over what employees do on their free time, provided no resources from the company (phone, laptop,...) have been used.

This won't mitigate the claim the company has on the IP, unfortunately.

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