[musesum]

Has California Law changed, since 2015?

My company was acquired by another company that had in-house lawyers. California Law states that you have rights to your own IP, when produced on your hardware and on your own time. So, I was careful to air gap all my work on a separate computer. Meanwhile, the acquiring company ask me to sign an employment agreement. Its terms restated the California law in very ambiguous terms. I couldn't tell if I was declaring rights to my own IP or signing away my rights. So, I asked them: "which is it?" Their replay was "Yes." ... I was an employee for a day.

[Aurornis]

This is dated 1997, so a lot could have changed since then.

You're right that California has IP assignment limitation clauses that override anything in the boilerplate employment contracts. I know one person who blew up their job offer by trying to get it modified to limit the IP assignment clause, but the company had a hardline stance that they didn't do one-off contracts with employees. Later they realized their state had already limited IP assignment, so the entire battle was moot.

[ryandrake]

California’s law has a truck-sized loophole though: if the IP in question relates in an way to your employer’s current or anticipated work/research, then they may claim it. Not your work at the company. The company’s work or their future work. And these big companies can believably claim that the scope of their work and research is huge and all-encompassing.