Your employer may have rights in your side project through an employment agreement or because you created the work as part of your job. Working on your own laptop outside working hours doesn't, by itself, settle ownership.
This article explains selected US rules and Kurodyne's selling requirements. It doesn't determine who owns a particular project. The agreement, applicable law, and facts of its creation matter.
An invention assignment clause transfers, or requires you to transfer, specified rights in work you create to your employer. Its scope depends on its wording and the legal limits that apply to it. The clause may sit in an employment agreement or a separate confidentiality and intellectual property agreement.
Read the clause together with its definitions, exclusions, and amendments. The relevant questions include:
- What does the agreement cover: inventions, software, designs, written work, or other material?
- Does it connect ownership to your duties, the employer's business, use of its resources, or work created during employment?
- Does it identify projects you already owned before joining, and what does it say about later improvements to them?
- Does it require disclosure of inventions or approval for outside work?
- Does a separate written agreement exclude this project or grant you rights to sell it?
Permission to pursue a project and authority to license its contents are separate questions. An outside-work approval needs to be read alongside the ownership terms.
California Labor Code section 2870 limits employment clauses that require assignment of qualifying inventions. It describes inventions "developed entirely on his or her own time" without the employer's equipment, supplies, facilities, or trade secret information, then states exceptions. See California Labor Code section 2870(opens in a new tab).
The protection doesn't cover an invention that either:
- Relates, when conceived or reduced to practice, to the employer's business or its actual or demonstrably anticipated research or development
- Results from work the employee performs for the employer
An assignment clause is unenforceable to the extent it reaches an invention the section protects. An exception removes that protection; it doesn't itself transfer ownership to the employer.
That distinction matters for a weekend project. Even with personal equipment and no employer secrets, its connection to the employer's business, research, or your work can put it within an exception. Whether an assignment clause then reaches the project requires reading the agreement.
Yes. New York and Washington also limit invention assignment clauses, with conditions and exceptions in their own statutes. These are examples, not a complete list of states.
- New York: New York Labor Law section 203-f(opens in a new tab) protects qualifying inventions developed entirely on the employee's time without employer equipment, supplies, facilities, or trade secret information. Its exceptions include inventions connected at conception or reduction to practice to the employer's business or "actual or demonstrably anticipated research or development," and inventions resulting from the employee's work for the employer.
- Washington: RCW 49.44.140(opens in a new tab) also protects qualifying inventions developed entirely on the employee's time without those employer resources. Its business exception uses the wording "directly to the business of the employer." It also has exceptions for the employer's actual or demonstrably anticipated research or development and inventions resulting from work for the employer.
Each law addresses assignment of inventions under employment agreements. These provisions don't settle every copyright, confidentiality, or outside-work question. Which law applies to a particular employment relationship is a separate question, especially when work crosses state or national borders.
An employer can own copyright in work made within the scope of employment without a separate assignment. Federal law defines a work made for hire to include work an employee prepares "within the scope of his or her employment." See 17 USC section 101(opens in a new tab).
For a work made for hire, the employer is treated as the author and owns the copyright unless the parties expressly agree otherwise in a signed written instrument. That rule appears in 17 USC section 201(b)(opens in a new tab).
The US Copyright Office's work made for hire guidance(opens in a new tab) explains that the employment relationship and scope of the work matter. The place and hours of creation are part of that analysis. A personal computer or an evening timestamp alone doesn't establish that code, illustrations, or documentation belong to the employee.
Copyright can also be transferred by agreement. Transfers generally require a writing signed by the rights owner or an authorized agent, with an exception for transfers by operation of law. See 17 USC section 204(a)(opens in a new tab).
Yes. Protection from assignment doesn't necessarily remove a contractual disclosure obligation. California expressly allows employment contracts to require confidential disclosure of inventions made alone or jointly during employment and to provide an employer review process. See California Labor Code section 2871(opens in a new tab).
Read any disclosure procedure separately from the assignment clause and from rules about outside work or confidential information. A disclosure requirement and an ownership transfer have different purposes; the existence of one doesn't establish the other.
Dated project records and the signed agreements help establish the facts behind an ownership question. Useful records include:
- The employment agreement, intellectual property agreement, amendments, and any schedule of excluded projects
- Dated designs and version history showing what existed before employment and what was added during it
- Records of the equipment, accounts, services, and materials used to create the project
- Written project exclusions, permissions, or releases from someone authorized to act for the employer
California's notice rule requires employers to notify employees of the section 2870 exclusion when entering covered assignment agreements after January 1, 1980. It also places the burden of proof on the employee claiming the protection in a suit or action under the provision. See California Labor Code section 2872(opens in a new tab).
These records support an assessment; they don't create an exemption by themselves. Keep private employment documents out of a product package or public README.
You must own the material or hold sufficient rights to grant buyers the Kurodyne Commercial License. Submitting a product makes that warranty and authorizes Kurodyne to grant the license on your behalf. The Kurodyne product terms and the Commercial License's seller warranty set the requirements.
Any employer permission you rely on must cover the rights you offer buyers, including the commercial use, copying, and modification allowed by the Kurodyne Commercial License grant. A permission limited to personal use doesn't cover that grant. A listing or README can't add seller-specific restrictions to narrow the license.
Resolve an employer ownership claim or a gap in your licensing authority before submitting the product. Kurodyne's listing review doesn't determine your employment rights. Once you have the required rights, follow Publish Your First Product to prepare the listing, or start selling on Kurodyne to set up your store.