Can a Company Require Assignment of Rights to All IP as a Condition of Employment

[hamackey]

The policies of a SC state institution say that anything any employee creates belongs to them. If I work in information technology at a healthcare institution, how can they own a book of poems I create? I did not specifically sign an IP agreement, yet the policy states that this is a condition of employment. What if I develop a software application that is totally un-related to the healthcare sector? They own it?


Thanks
hamackey

[Mr. Knowitall]

What the company doesn't want is for you to quit, take an idea to a competitor (or start a business), then claim that you came up with the idea "on your own time". If you have specific concerns with regard to IP wholly unrelated to the business, you can see if your employer will be willing to add a line or two describing that it's not, for example, making a claim to your poetry, personal photography, arts & crafts, etc.

[Beth3]

Agree. You should discuss your concerns with your employer and ask them to amend the agreement to reflect any work related software applications you create, improve, etc., are their intellectual property and not unrelated software or other items. If you write software for a computer game, they don't care about that.

You may want to take the IP agreement to your own attorney to draft new language and then propose to your employer you sign the amended agreement.