Hi all,

Please feel free to redirect if I'm in the wrong place. And yes, I will most certainly obtain legal counsel before making any actual decisions - please consider this the early 'information gathering' stage of my quest. :)

The function of my work is administrative. To improve my own efficiency, I have written code that helps me do my job. This was not a job requirement - stated or implied - it was merely my way of being better at my job. The code was written on company time, using company assets. There is zero question that this IP belongs to the company.

As another function of my job, I assisted our IT department in writing requirements for professional software to assist with my job. These requirements went out through a formal process and resulted in a development firm being hired to create software. This software ended up being basically unusable.

Because of my experience in the arena, and my proficiency in coding, I've been asked to formally develop the software that I started working on myself - basically, it would become my actual job function.

That being said, I believe well developed software could be worth a significant amount. I also believe that if I develop something to address a need in the industry (colleagues at various competitors report they are all struggling with the same challenges, and they do not have adequate software - in short, I've done the research, there IS a market) I would have no trouble selling it.

My question (sorry for all the lead-in): if I started from scratch (use no code I wrote on company time), and wrote a system to solve a challenge the industry is facing, where do I stand, generally speaking? I have been privy to (and helped write) requirements that were considered business confidential. Obviously, I couldn't take that requirements document and build from that. Where is the line between my knowledge and corporate property?