Blogstar Robert Scoble is leaving Microsoft, and this brings me back to my recent post about Steve Rubel's departure from CooperKatz.
Background: A while back there was an interesting conversation on Shel Israel's blog "Naked Conversations." Called The Power of Personal Brand, Mr. Israel's post discussed the positive impact an A-player's weblog can have on a corporate brand. The post cited several examples -- but the most well known was Steve Rubel, whose widely-read blog MicroPersuasion ceased to be associated with his former employer, CooperKatz, when Mr. Rubel moved to Edelman PR several months ago. Mr. Israel believes that CooperKatz failed to appreciate how much Mr. Rubel's blog did for its brand. I'm sure he's right.
While the comments to Mr. Israel's post were intelligent and interesting, none addressed the larger issue of who "owns" the blog if the employee leaves.
Make no mistake: This is a BIG, STINKING issue, and one that's best addressed sooner rather than later.
- Best case, ignoring the issue will allow your employer to "sell their interest" in your weblog back to you when you leave.
- Worst case, your employer will want to make an example of you to other employees and sue you for ownership of your blog, your domain name, and all of your blog's content.
Now you've got a fight on your hands -- a fight for your baby. More often than not, your company will have deeper pockets than you -- and even if the matter never goes to trial, a volley of lawyer letters can easily cost you ten grand.
Trust in God and tie up your camels.
If you blog, here are five things you should do to minimize future conflicts with your employer.
1. Get a written agreement with your employer that your blog is your intellectual property in perpetuity and throughout the universe. Like any prenuptial agreement, this may require you to have an uncomfortable conversation, but you simply must deal with this issue before your company realizes its importance. Such an agreement might require you to set an editorial platform for your blog and stick to it -- but you should be doing that anyway. Otherwise, in the wake of your departure, your company's lawyer may send you a letter stating "In the absence of any agreement to the contrary, yada yada yada ..." Now you're in a pickle.
Re: timing - Unless you are planning to leave in the next 90 days, wait until your next salary negotiation or until your non-compete agreement is updated. In other words, wait until it's appropriate to bring it up. Otherwise, management will think you're up to no good.
2. Don't blog about your company. By all means you must have a teachable point of view on your profession for your blog to be of any benefit to you professionally. But the more you mix your company's identity with your blog, the harder it will be to separate the two later on. Blog about your function (marketing, accounting, finance, etc.) and your industry (retail, aerospace, accounting, etc.), but leave your company out of it.
3. Be able to prove conclusively that you wrote your blog off hours. This means that all of your blog's time stamps must be for times when you were out of the office.
4. Do not check your weblog stats at work. Even if you never authored a post at work, a forensic computer investigator can retrieve your page views. If those page views create the impression that you were blogging on company time, you've got a problem. Don't expect a jury to appreciate the difference between creating a post and checking your stats. More likely they'll just think you were blogging on the job and vote accordingly.
Of course, a forensic investigation cuts both ways: If you never log into your blog account at work -- then when your former employer hassles you, you can simply demand that they hire a forensic investigator to prove any assertion to the contrary.
5. Blog with your personal email address and personal phone number. Ask yourself: "If I left tomorrow and one of my readers wanted to reach me, where would they go first?" This is a critical issue for two reasons: a.) Being unfindable could cost you business in your new role, and b.) You don't want your business associates sending potentially sensitive emails to your former employer. Such emails and voice mails may be held against you in a court of law.
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