Logistically, obviously, a company can ask an employee to do just about anything legitimate to earn their paycheck during their work hours. Obviously, the ones that are clear and explicit in their job descriptions have the best results – you want their enthusiastic cooperation, not a running battle.

Software companies commonly require documentation as a core part of the position description; while some provide “profit sharing” via stock options, I’m not aware of any company that is presently offering a full flight profit sharing program. Hopefully someone will leave a comment and a link here if they know of one.

I would also say that a best practice would be creating an incentive and/or profit sharing program for the system I outlined here to work most effectively. Companies that have a good faith and fair effort clause in their employment agreement that outline ownership of intellectual property created during the employment period would also need to adjust accordingly – it’s no longer possible to assume that employees won’t just leave and monetize it themselves.