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Comment by guiambros | Hacker News Reader

Many companies require their employees to give away any and all intellectual rights while working for them, even when created on your own spare time and equipment.

You may request an exception, but it'll need to be reviewed and approved beforehand by their lawyers.

Previous discussion here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2208056

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In most U.S. states (even WA) [Law here](http://apps.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=49.44.140). Employers often still make you sign something saying that they own your soul and blah blah but they aren't enforceable.

Now, in some states (WA but not CA or NY) your employer can fire you for moonlighting if they want to but that's about it. You also have to watch out if you signed a non-compete and are arguably competing with your employer.

These states seem to be a minority, see Intellectual Property and the Employee Engineer[1]

    California CA Labor 2870 -2872  
    Delaware 19 Del.C. s 805  
    Illinois 765 I.L.C.S. 1060/2  
    Kansas K.S.A. 44-130  
    Minnesota M.S.A. 181.78  
    North Carolina G.S. s 66-57.1  
    Washington RCWA 49.44.140, 150  
    Utah UT ST s 34-39-3

[1]: https://www.ieeeusa.org/members/IPandtheengineer.pdf

Even in states that do not allow a company to take complete control of an employees IP, the employee will still need to document and work with the company to make sure the rights are completely theirs.

Little bit more on that: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9807612

Talk to a lawyer, but in the US it depends on the state you live in. In CA I believe you own things done on your own time and equipment. (In WA, not so much).

In both NC and WI where I work it's true that you own your side projects given the caveats above. I assumed it was most states so I'm surprised to see WA is different.

For what it's worth, I asked the founders of a startup I was working at if I could develop and sell my own apps in my spare time and they gave me permission to do so without any issues. We agreed that any apps I made couldn't compete in the domain the startup was based around which I thought was fair.

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