Hacking At Employment Risks In Hackathons: Practice Insights

Introduction

Employers of technology innovators should beware the employment traps and risks associated with think tank operations and retreats, such as hackathons. Hackathons are company-sponsored competitions, where either teams or individual software developers (and now increasingly other types of professionals) (here) are given a timed task to complete, usually over the course of a weekend, on the employer's premises.  Over the last five years, these events have exploded in popularity, generating products such as GroupMe or the beloved Facebook timeline.

Types of Hackathons

Two types of hackathons, in particular, may trigger employment law risks: 1) internal hackathons, focused on innovation by employees already employed by the company; and 2) external hackathons, where the purpose is to recruit elite programmers or other professionals from a highly competitive talent pool. In hosting these hackathons, questions may arise as to whether the event is