<p>I mean, do all engineering jobs really say that they own any and all ideas you come up with while working for them, even if it’s something you work on yourself at home on your own time? What are the particulars here?</p>
<p>I think some companies have such clauses but many more don’t. I also have a feeling that it could be quite illegal. It’s probably a lot more common for clauses to say they own everything you create at work, but I’ve definitely heard of stories where companies try to claim that they own things developed by someone solely at home.</p>
<p>I bet it’s more prevalent amongst software companies, especially small, insecure startups.</p>
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<p>They discussed this at my orientation when I first started working. Basically if I come up with an idea that is derivative of something i’ve worked on at the company then it’s theirs. Anything else they don’t have claim to.</p>
<p>What vblick said - it is a standard clause for engineers that anything developed at work or using work resources is 100% company property, as is anything you develop on your own time and without company resources that nonetheless involves company products or research areas. The only way to own your own invention as engineer working for a company is for that invention to be completely unrelated to your work, and to have used none of your company’s resources to develop it.</p>
<p>On one hand it makes a certain amount of sense - after all, they are providing all the resources, and paying you for your time, so they should own the result of your work, correct? On the other hand, it really screws over engineers as being one of the very few “creative” career fields in which you retain no ownership over your own work product.</p>
<p>There have been many reasons advanced by people as to why one shoud not pursue engineering, and this is the only one I truly definitely agree with: the lack of any ownership whatsoever of your own ideas. If someone tried to unionize engineers with the idea of changing this one policy, I would probably get behind it.</p>
<p>It is very common and they expect to be the beneficiary of all of your creativity. They don’t want to have to figure out whether you used their time or resources, it’s much easier to just own everything you produce. It’s a standard condition of employment. Nobody is putting a gun to your head to take the paycheck. </p>
<p>There are federally funded research labs that will often agree to license technology that you develop back to you if you raise money to start a company to develop the technology further. It’s not that easy though. </p>
<p>Also they often share royalties
[Bayh?Dole</a> Act - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayh–Dole_Act]Bayh?Dole”>Bayh–Dole Act - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>Many people start their own companies to develop their own ideas. If you’re not on someone else’s payroll, your free to own your own ideas.</p>