patents workplace professional-ethics
Job interview presentation about patented work by previous employer
<p>In the interview process of some tech companies there is a time slot allocated for a presentation to the members of the team, which is expected to be about a topic you have directly worked on. </p>

<p>Some of the work I have done in the past has been filed for patents by my previous companies. It is my understanding that I am not legally allowed to <em>use</em> the work in another company product, but can I still discuss the details of the patent in a presentation in order to show my value as a candidate?</p>

<p>Does it make any difference for the work to have been applied for patent but pending approval?</p>

<p>Pending approval, or Patent Pending, is the state between an application and issuance of a patent (if it ends up being issued). </p>

<p>When someone files for a patent, they get a filing date. If it is the first patent in the family, it is also the priority date. The priority date is the earliest date to which the applicant can claim precedence. </p>

<p>If there are references that are found from before that date, they can be used to show the inventor is not the first to invent the disclosure. </p>

<p>If there are references that come out after the priority date, they cannot be used to show the inventor is not the first to invent. </p>

<p>In the situation you described, if what is disclosed in the interview is the same as what is disclosed in the patent application, what you disclose could not be used by that second company to obtain a patent on the same subject matter. </p>

<p>Now, can you discuss the details? There are more than just patent considerations here, for instance NDAs. </p>

<p>One way you may be able to talk about it is that you, for instance, "helped develop a novel method of [insert task] using [frameworks] to [improve | speed up | slow down | etc] the [thing]. This has saved Company A $xxx per [unit] and [talk about how your genius doing that thing has made the company more competetive / made the bosses more money].</p>
