IP ownership and side projects
By Offer Unpacked · Updated
Document what you already own and clarify how the employer treats future projects. A personal laptop or weekend schedule is not, by itself, a complete answer to ownership.
Educational guide prepared with AI assistance. No independent legal review is claimed. How these guides are prepared.
Distinguish the obligations
An agreement may separately address ownership of inventions, copyright, confidential information, outside employment and conflicts of interest. Permission to run a side project does not necessarily settle ownership of its code; an ownership exclusion does not necessarily authorize using confidential company material.
Collect every referenced policy before signing. Look for definitions covering work related to the employer’s current business, anticipated research, your assigned duties or company resources. Ask which definition applies to the kind of project you actually plan to build.
Create a useful prior-project schedule
List existing projects by name, a short nonconfidential description and creation date. Keep evidence of prior work where you are entitled to retain it. Identify code, designs, publications or inventions that you want acknowledged as pre-existing.
Do not disclose a former employer’s secrets in that schedule. If a project cannot be described safely, ask counsel how to document the boundary. Obtain the required signature or approval rather than assuming an attachment sent to a recruiter is part of the agreement.
Clarify future contributions
Ask how open-source contributions, teaching, consulting and unrelated products are approved. Clarify who can give permission, whether approvals expire, and whether a change in role changes the rules. A clear process is easier to use than an informal promise that small projects are fine.
The U.S. Copyright Office explains the work-made-for-hire concept, which is one piece of this topic. It does not resolve patent assignment, every state’s employee invention rules or a specific side-project dispute.
Illustrative example
A fictional developer maintains a gardening app before joining a payments company. The new agreement broadly assigns work created during employment.
Ask to list the existing app and clarify future unrelated maintenance. Do not assume the two industries alone create a legal exclusion.
What to look for
- Assignment of anything created during employment
- No schedule for prior inventions
- Approval rights over unrelated outside work
Questions to ask
- Can my listed prior projects be excluded in writing?
- What equipment, time, and subject-matter tests apply?
Source and scope
U.S. Copyright Office — Works Made for HireU.S. copyright background; does not cover every invention-assignment or outside-work question. Examples and preparation questions are illustrative editorial content, not conclusions supplied by the source.
Your next step
Prepare a nonconfidential project list and request written clarification of ownership and outside-work approval.