| I am not a lawyer, this is not legal advice, yadda yadda. > I’ve been to a lawyer and they were pretty vague. Find a better lawyer. You're definitely not the first person who has been in this situation. > No I haven’t worked on company equipment and always in my spare time. May not be relevant. Your employment agreement may have a clause that says the company has a claim, even if you worked on your own equipment and in your own time, if the project is reasonably connected with the company's usual business. You can challenge it, of course, but do you want to get in a legal kerfuffle with a "Big tech company"? > Live in CA so non-compete/company ownership law is not enforceable as I gather. This is not a non-compete issue; that's when the company tries to stop you from working for their competitor after you quit. Important to get the concepts straight. IP ownership issues like this are a different ballgame. You've got several scenarios: 1. You say no, company wants to go ahead and do it themselves: you're now competing on the side with your employer. Very bad scene. 2. You say no, company says okay we won't do it. VP probably not happy; company still knows you're working on it and can claim ownership and land you in legal hot water if it takes off as your side project. 3. You say yes, company goes ahead: no longer a side project, so you won't see as much upside if it succeeds, but it might have a better shot of success with the company's resources behind it. 4. You say yes, company decides not to proceed: this may actually be your best outcome, if you can get the company to put in writing that they're not interested in the idea and you're cleared to go work on it on your own. (EDIT: of course you may also be able to ask the company for clearance in situation (2), but they may be less inclined than in situation (4) where you've at least shown the willingness to work with them.) |
This is a non-compete issue. Because it's in CA, OP can quit the company right away and start a competing business (presumably the big tech company will start doing something similar) without worrying about non-complete. (This is not legal advice)