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How to do Discloure before new empoloyment

2 points by ausjke ↗ HN
I have a few side-projects that I have been slowly working on when I can find time over the years. Many jobs require that they fully "own" you as long as you're employed by them, means whatever you do in the employment period is owned by the company.

How should I do a full disclosure before signing the offer letter? I want to keep what I had, further I also want to have the right to keep working on the side projects in the future and keep it to myself(out of work hours, and never use any employer's resource for that, and, never directly compete with the employer's market). The products are normally very different from what I will be doing once hired.

4 comments

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codingdave
I'd research what your contract really says - most of the time, they only claim IP in areas that overlap the employer's business, on their time, using their systems, or some combination of those three. A contract that says they own everything you create while employed is heavy-handed, and should be negotiated before you sign.

As far as where to disclose, they should include a form to document any prior inventions when they gave you the employment contract. If they did not, ask HR. It is a fairly standard addendum to IP contracts.

ausjke
Thanks. The contract and NDA is normally a few pages with terms I don't really understand fully, but I did read "once you're employeed we own you even for what you do after work and in the weekends".

Can't say there is 0 overlap but the main market and product type are definitely different.

Olumde
Are you in the UK? Such terms are common in tech here in the UK.

I also had a job offered with pretty much identical terms. I planned to disclose and negotiate this clause after negotiating the salary (they offered less than I used to make) but they walked off in a huff when I pushed back against the offer. I did not regret it as I have IP that I have been developing for years and I hope to spin into a company in a couple of years.

ausjke
No I'm in US, Thanks for the reply.