Preventing Your CA Employer from Owning Your Inventions

California loves its workers.

Silicon Valley is a vibrant community for startups in part because of California’s legal attitude towards corporate employees.

California wants corporate employees to be able to hop jobs.

In California, non-compete clauses in most employment contracts are unenforceable.

California wants corporate employees to be able to start new companies.

In California, employment contracts that try to own any and all inventions that employees create at any time are unenforceable.

Section 2872 of the California Labor Code narrows the net of what inventions an employer may claim to own by contract.

A company cannot require an employee to assign any invention to her employer by contract where the following conditions are met:

• The employee developed the invention entirely on her own time;
• The employee developed the invention without using the Company’s equipment, supplies, facilities or trade secret information;
• The invention did not relate at the time of conception or reduction to practice of the invention to the Company’s business, or actual or demonstrably anticipated research or development of the Company; and
• The invention is not the result from any work performed by the employee for the Company.

(This limited exclusion does not apply to any patent or invention covered by a contract between the Company and the United States or any of its agencies requiring full title to such patent or invention to be in the United States.)

If you live in California and you follow these statutory guidelines, you can protect the inventions that you create for your startup.