<story><title>Does my company have IP rights to the stuff I do in my spare time?</title><url>http://answers.onstartups.com/questions/19422/if-im-working-at-a-company-do-they-have-intellectual-property-rights-to-the-stu</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>rst</author><text>This also varies somewhat by state; there&apos;s a law in California (Labor Code section 2870[1]) that bars employers from claiming work that an employee does &quot;on his or her own time without using the employer&apos;s equipment, supplies, facilities or trade secret information&quot; unless the invention relates directly to the employer&apos;s business.  I&apos;d still check with a lawyer, though, even if in California --- and if elsewhere, most states are a lot less generous.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=lab&amp;#38;group=02001-03000&amp;#38;file=2870-2872&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=lab&amp;#3...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item><item><author>tptacek</author><text>Very often, yes. The boilerplate IP contracts provided by most law firms usually claims one of:&lt;p&gt;* All software development work you ever do while employed by the company.&lt;p&gt;* All software development work you do using in any way any resource of the company, from computer to network connection.&lt;p&gt;* All software development work you do related to the business of the company that employs you.&lt;p&gt;* All software development work you do that isn&apos;t explicitly listed in an exhibit of exceptions you, the employee, fill out.&lt;p&gt;Before you start asking how enforceable this stuff is, note that unlike with noncompetes (which usually aren&apos;t practically enforceable), the way &lt;i&gt;this&lt;/i&gt; issue is going to come up is, you&apos;re going to try to start a company, and your first official act of business is going to be to start defending yourself against legal actions from your employer that will torpedo any chance you have of getting funding for the year or so it takes for those actions to resolve themselves.&lt;p&gt;So, &apos;grellas may chime in and say &quot;don&apos;t worry about this&quot;, in which case ignore me, but I wouldn&apos;t dick around with this issue. If my IP contract precluded me from working on my next company project, I&apos;d get a clarified official path to working on it from my employer, and leave if one wasn&apos;t provided.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>tptacek</author><text>It may be harder than you expect to establish that you&apos;re not in a business related to your former employer, at least to the extent that you can quickly end a legal action; all I&apos;m saying is, that legal safeguard may not be as helpful as you&apos;d hope.</text></comment>
<story><title>Does my company have IP rights to the stuff I do in my spare time?</title><url>http://answers.onstartups.com/questions/19422/if-im-working-at-a-company-do-they-have-intellectual-property-rights-to-the-stu</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>rst</author><text>This also varies somewhat by state; there&apos;s a law in California (Labor Code section 2870[1]) that bars employers from claiming work that an employee does &quot;on his or her own time without using the employer&apos;s equipment, supplies, facilities or trade secret information&quot; unless the invention relates directly to the employer&apos;s business.  I&apos;d still check with a lawyer, though, even if in California --- and if elsewhere, most states are a lot less generous.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=lab&amp;#38;group=02001-03000&amp;#38;file=2870-2872&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=lab&amp;#3...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item><item><author>tptacek</author><text>Very often, yes. The boilerplate IP contracts provided by most law firms usually claims one of:&lt;p&gt;* All software development work you ever do while employed by the company.&lt;p&gt;* All software development work you do using in any way any resource of the company, from computer to network connection.&lt;p&gt;* All software development work you do related to the business of the company that employs you.&lt;p&gt;* All software development work you do that isn&apos;t explicitly listed in an exhibit of exceptions you, the employee, fill out.&lt;p&gt;Before you start asking how enforceable this stuff is, note that unlike with noncompetes (which usually aren&apos;t practically enforceable), the way &lt;i&gt;this&lt;/i&gt; issue is going to come up is, you&apos;re going to try to start a company, and your first official act of business is going to be to start defending yourself against legal actions from your employer that will torpedo any chance you have of getting funding for the year or so it takes for those actions to resolve themselves.&lt;p&gt;So, &apos;grellas may chime in and say &quot;don&apos;t worry about this&quot;, in which case ignore me, but I wouldn&apos;t dick around with this issue. If my IP contract precluded me from working on my next company project, I&apos;d get a clarified official path to working on it from my employer, and leave if one wasn&apos;t provided.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>elai</author><text>There was also a similar clause in my washington employment contract.  The law even states that the clause must be put in all contracts and still applies if it doesn&apos;t.</text></comment>