
Ask HN: How to protect IP on side projects which interest my employer? - heliocentric
It seems the question posted (and flagged) earlier today was perfectly reasonable, but for the identifying details.  And it seems also the person asking is dealing with a very serious situation, and could greatly benefit from the HN community&#x27;s perspective and advice.<p>So how about we try reposting, sans identifying details?  Like this:<p>Hello HN,<p>I&#x27;ve been working for a company for a while and am facing a rather delicate situation:<p>The company is starting to widen its scope on technologies used within our organization. The Company has started to use, invent, and work on technology that I care about outside of work. I am worried that my existing and new projects, open or closed, could be threatened if I don&#x27;t protect myself.  I have engaged our Company counsel to begin the process of amending my employment agreement to address this. However, I&#x27;m unsure what to explicitly call out to protect past projects as well as potential new ones.<p>How does one effectively and intelligently detail previous projects while specifying potential new ones as it relates to certain technologies in an employment agreement? For instance, if I were working on a database system off hours, research or applied, how do I protect myself if the Company decides to build database systems? In theory, my employment agreement with the Company says that work is now owned by the Company.<p>Basically, I am probing for advisement on how to proceed without wasting any individuals time involved in this process. I am looking for other technology professionals to give me guidance navigating this messy and sensitive situation.<p>Thank you very much for your help.
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enginaar
I believe it also depends on what state you're working, at least in U.S.

According to Joel Spolsky employer owns anything you do on the side in NY
whether it's related to your office work or not.
[https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2016/12/09/developers-side-
pr...](https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2016/12/09/developers-side-projects/)

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heliocentric
(1) Consult an attorney, please

(2) I found msyelf facing a very similar situation myself recently, and if you
contact me via the address in my profile I would be happy to both give you a
referral as to (1) and to trade notes about what I was able to find out this
(as you have nailed it) rather messy and sensitive subject. Absolute
confidentiality will be assured.

Good luck.

