Ask HN: How to save your side projects from your Employers?

6 comments

• PragmaticPulp 1587 days ago
  > Most people have the Side Projects and most often employers force the employee to take ownership if it is successful.

  Most people don't have side projects. Most companies have zero interest in taking ownership of your unrelated hobby project.

  The exception is if your side project overlaps with your employer's core business. Example: If your employer makes database software and your side project is an iPhone game for kids, they have zero interest in your IP. It would be a waste of their time and money to seize it, and they aren't going to allocate resources to running it.

  On the other hand, if you're employed develop database software and you also create a database side project while employed there, then yes, your employer will have valid claim to that IP.

  The closer your side project is to your day job, the more interested they'll be in taking it. You can't collect a paycheck from a company, have access to their IP, while simultaneously working on a competing project in secret.

  [-]
  • jimws 1587 days ago
    > Most people don't have side projects.

    Do you have any citation to back this up?

    My anecdata indicates otherwise. Most people I meet in IT do have side projects. They may not be popular or successful but they exist.

    [-]
• finsrud 1587 days ago
  See if your employer would be open to using GitHub's open source employee IP agreement: https://github.com/github/balanced-employee-ip-agreement.

  It's a bit more balanced than the standard IP Agreements most tech companies are using.
• NonEUCitizen 1587 days ago
  1. Move to California and make sure you are payrolled in California under California law (not remote contractor to out of state company).

  1a. When/If joining a new company, list your side projects in the "Pre-existing IP" paperwork, to be excluded from their ownership. Read carefully and make sure it's not mistakenly placed in the list of things that they get a free license to.

  2. Make sure your side project is not in the same line of business as your employer's.

  3. Make sure you use your own time and equipment for your side project.
• javaIsGreat 1584 days ago
  If you are working for a company that is large enough to have a legal team you can ask them about it.

  I asked a software company this about 2 years ago in the bay area and they gave me a form to sign stating it doesnt compete with the company's products and i explained what i was doing.

  If they say otherwise you can take it from there!
• buboard 1586 days ago
  make them profitable, quit and have no employer. problem solved.

  but oh wait. IT salaries are so high that it's impossible to match them nowadays
• probinso 1587 days ago
  use a computer, learn basic threat modeling