Do you like working as a medical technologist?

Legally, does working for NASA JPL in the "technologist" position counts as being engaged in academic research?

• Knowing that JPL is a division Caltech, would working at JPL as a "technologist" in one of the research and development groups legally count as academic research? Or is it not? Where and from whom can I get definitive legal advice on this ?

• Answer:

  Neither being a "technologist", nor being engaged in academic research, are legal categories like, say, being the resident of a state, or being a party to a contract. It all depends on the context and what you are trying to do. If as others suggest it has to do with an engagement by JPL possibly intersecting with a contract with another party, you would have to look specifically at that contract: (1) how it defines the term if at all, (2) what criteria and process it establishes for making the determination, and (3) the actions to be taken, and consequences, of falling into that category. Is it a promise not to engage in academic research? Is it an exception to a rights assignment clause? One way to get a definitive answer is to ask the other party to the contract whether they consider the JPL assignment to be academic research. They may or may not be required to answer, but they probably will. If they let you off whatever hook you're concerned about ask them to put it in writing. After that it is no longer an abstract question — whether they were right or not to make that decision, you have an answer that is probably binding on then, and if you are not happy with it you can consider next steps. I can imagine plenty of reasons not to ask, if you think it's none of their business or perhaps you want to know where you stand and what your option sare before asking. If that's the case, you should hire either an employment lawyer who specializes in technology and/or academia issues, or a business / technology lawyer who has some experience with employment issues. There are plenty of those around at large firms, small firms, and operating on their own, all across the U.S. and certainly in the LA area. It's probably a 1-3 hour project to review the contracts and then conduct a meeting with you to advise you, and I don't think you should have much problem finding a lawyer competent to do that. If asking online is more your thing, I think there are some sites out there where you can actually establish a lawyer / client relationship for pay and exchange personal information — as you'll see from the disclaimers people are giving here, you can't get personalized legal advice and shouldn't disclose any personal legal information on a public forum like Quora.