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by finsrud 2378 days ago
If you happen to be in California...

Section 2872 of the California Labor Code prohibits your employer from taking ownership of anything that you develop entirely on your own time without using your employer's equipment, supplies, facilities or trade secret information, EXCEPT for those things that either:

(a) Relate at the time of conception or reduction to practice to your employer's business, or actual or demonstrably anticipated research or development; or

(b) Result from any work performed by you for your employer.
1 comments
throw_side_hust 2378 days ago
Yes, I am in the bay. I read this labor code, but figuring out what actually is covered by a. seems difficult with such a large corporation.
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welder 2377 days ago
Almost nothing is covered by a. Just do b and you'll be fine. Quote from a book:

"Keep Calm and Carry On"

Don't tell Google about it (but do declare it on any future employment agreements), make sure your team is happy with your performance, don't use company resources and your job/insurance will be fine. Let that settle in, afterwards thinking more is a waste of time.

There's many examples of Google employees building side projects that turn into companies. [1] Let that precedent keep you calm.

1: https://sandstorm.io https://sourcegraph.com https://www.businessinsider.com/20-enterprise-startups-forme...

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kentonv 2376 days ago
Note that sandstorm.io (and Cap'n Proto) was written 100% after I left Google, so I'm not sure if that's a great example.

I would not recommend working on a future startup while still at Google, unless the work is 100% open source and approved. If it's open source, you'll have an easier time getting it approved if you let Google keep copyright. This should be fine because they cannot retroactively revoke the license, so your startup will be able to use it under the terms of the open source license.

If you're writing proprietary code, you are putting your future startup at risk. It's not just that Google might come after you (this is actually unlikely, since it's bad PR for Google), but you may have a hard time getting investors if your IP rights aren't in order. Investors do care about this stuff.

California law does not work well as a defense since Google essentially claims that all code relates to its business in some way.

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