As per the contract, the engineer's labour is being compensated by wages and benefits. All the fruits of his/her labour are solely owned by the company. This is at least true in North America.
[IANAL] Labour - yes. My understanding though is that despite wages, etc. the copyright/IP belongs to the engineer until there is an assignment agreement in place - that piece of paper we all sign coming to a new job and every time again when our patents get filed. If it were in the US and the OP doesn't have such assignment signed, i'd think the sale of the company without his cooperation would go nowhere.
In the absence of an explicit contract, the courts will take the typical approach or what would be reasonably accepted for that industry. Fairness of compensation also matters. If compensation seems reasonable for a work for hire, then that standard will be applied. If the payout is fairly consistent then it could look like a salary. Engineers cannot hold up sales of companies unless they have an ownership stake. They could dispute IP ownership but even then the sale would go through usually. If majority of the voting directorship is in favour of the sale, there’s nothing to stop it.
The engineer could file a lien in that case. Perhaps that might give the buyer pause, or they could decide its easy enough to fight or pay out and may go through with it anyways. Liens do not block a sale if the buyer is willing to assume the risk.
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[IANAL] Labour - yes. My understanding though is that despite wages, etc. the copyright/IP belongs to the engineer until there is an assignment agreement in place - that piece of paper we all sign coming to a new job and every time again when our patents get filed. If it were in the US and the OP doesn't have such assignment signed, i'd think the sale of the company without his cooperation would go nowhere.
In the absence of an explicit contract, the courts will take the typical approach or what would be reasonably accepted for that industry. Fairness of compensation also matters. If compensation seems reasonable for a work for hire, then that standard will be applied. If the payout is fairly consistent then it could look like a salary. Engineers cannot hold up sales of companies unless they have an ownership stake. They could dispute IP ownership but even then the sale would go through usually. If majority of the voting directorship is in favour of the sale, there’s nothing to stop it.
The engineer could file a lien in that case. Perhaps that might give the buyer pause, or they could decide its easy enough to fight or pay out and may go through with it anyways. Liens do not block a sale if the buyer is willing to assume the risk.