<prompt> Human: Hi Reddit. Posting with a throw away. Im a senior m41 software developer for a big IT-company in Germany and have had a steady job for 8 years. Im having a very good paycheck.For years, our company has been struggling with a certain software problem, in one of our products. The problem is both technologically and mathematically difficult.The last year Ive doing a lot of research and putting a lot of effort in it, in my spare time, because the problem fascinates me. Ive been able to come up with the wanted solution lots of code.Without wanting to pat myself on the back; not many of our employees could have done this because a they dont get the time to do so, and b they dont have the ambitionskills to do this in their spare time, at home.Recently, Ive showed of the solution to three of our people with a decent amount of authority quite high up in the pyramid, during a presentation.They were flabbergasted they are still in the phase of planning solutions for this and did not expect this to be done within the next years, and want to move forward with this asap. However, the solution is in my possession - which leads me to my question.Ive tried to picture the situation as best as I could to you guys: Im sitting on quite a golden egg. My goal, besides wanting to move forward with the company and satisfying my personal intellect and the need to fix problems, has always been to earn some dimes with this.How to proceed and make the best out of this situation? Should I ask for a one-time bonus? A raise? Stocks? How hard should this game be played? And if not getting the offer I should aim for, for whatever reason, would it be a bad move to open source this, and let the employer -plus everyone who wants to- use it in that way? Its not a company specific solution; many people could benefit from it.I have no experience with a situation like this at all. The only thing that has been on my path, is getting a decent raise every year, because Ive done a good job in general for years, in their eyes. Note that Im the type of person that would be shy while having a talk about this which probably is inevitable. Im a bit stuck in how to proceed from here. Feeling the pressure from the people higher up in the hierarchy: good business people as they are, they are more than willing to take this solution from me without rewarding me.On the other hand; I dont want to blackmail them in any way, loving the job as I have it. So again, how hard should this game be played?Thanks for any input :Hanging around for a while to answer questions.Edit: my contract states, in the IP paragraph, that the company only has IP on all work done under the contract. For as far as I understand, this does not include the IP on work done outside work hours, which is the case.Assistant: I am not sure about any relevant laws in Germany, but it is common in the US for software developers in particular but not exclusively to have to sign an IP rights agreement as part of their employment contract. This often means the company owns or gets first dibs on any code you write outside of work or something that you write as a result of your employment, etc.Your first step needs to be to find out what if any rights your employer has to your code. It could drastically change your approach. Human: Thanks, thats a very good point. Diving into the relevant paragraphs of my contract right now.Edit: my contract states, in the IP paragraph, that the company only has IP on all work done under the contract. For as far as I understand, this does not include the IP on work done outside work hours, which is the case.  <response>: Is this common software? If you were doing the coding as a result of your job or using company resources i.e. a corporate software license then you may have implicitly given them the rights to the work. 