Do companies have intellectual property rights to my spare time projects?

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7 points·fuzzythinker··5 comments

On that same note, all the contracts I've signed say that they own anything that relates to their core business, whenever I create it, and that makes sense to me.

So I just don't create things in my free time that relate to my day job's core business. And I think that's fair, as they pay me handsomely for all my time and ideas that apply.

Luckily, my hobby interests lie in a different realm than my day jobs usually do, so it shouldn't ever be a problem. Oddly enough, in my interview, they asked me if I was interested in the business. I told them I wasn't really, but I love programming. That turned out to be better for me than I expected. Hehe.

That's how I understand how the California law works. If it's not related to your company's core business (which gets into legit IP issues most especially trade secrets) what you do on your own time with your own resources is yours, full stop.

Even if you're under the California law, be very careful that the two work-worlds never overlap. And, keep very good dated records.

Short answer: in California, no, and given the extent of the CA tech industry and the reach of its boilerplate, ypu might be pleased to see that the clause from Cali is in your contract in Georgia.

Georgia used to have very strenuous assignment/non-compete rules (your entire contract was thrown out if there was any wrong clause in the non-compete, therefore companies were careful to not over-reach). I'm saddened we happened to amend the constitution of the state to allow the non-California style "take it to court and let judges alter crap ex post facto"

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