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In this next installment in our 2015 Physician Contract Review Tips series, we are discussing a subject closely related to our last article on Outside Income-Generating Activities. That article discussed physician employment agreement language that dictates whether the employed physician can participate in outside activities and retain the income therefrom. In this article, we are focusing on intellectual property issues that surround certain work product that physician employees may create. The range of focus on intellectual property rights in physician employment contracts spans from no mention at all, to sweeping, overly-broad language that leaves the physician employee with no rights or interest in his or her own intellectual property. For many physicians, intellectual property issues may not be a hot button topic, but for those physicians who foresee participating in invention, innovation, consulting, and research work, any language in your agreement having to do with intellectual property can be hugely impactful.
It is crucial that physicians understand each and every term of their employment agreement to the fullest extent, and it is also of utmost importance that physicians never assume they will not, at some point down the road, become involved in activities that might result in work product that is protectable. For instance, while you may not foresee working with a device manufacturer in the future, you also might not be comfortable signing over to your employer, for free, all of your future ideas, inventions, patents, copyrights, trademarks and other protectable work product. Some physician employment agreements do in fact go so far as to provide that the physician employee is agreeing to hand over to their new employer, at no cost, or at only a very minimal cost, their entire inventory, current and future, of intellectual property. As one can imagine, agreeing to language of this sort could end up costing the physician employee an enormous amount of money in the instance where a piece of intellectual property becomes valuable in the future. The moral of this article, as is true with physician contract reviews in general, is to not sell yourself short. Especially if you are just coming out of training, you may be hesitant to negotiate away certain contract terms that will limit your rights and interests down the road, but do not assume that they will always be irrelevant to you. They may in fact one day be more lucrative than your basic compensation you earn from providing medical services.
For more information on physician contract review tips, please contact Leigh Ann at 317-989-4833 or loneill@lauthoneill.com.
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