[jinglebells]

"The general rule – IP ownership

The general position under English law is that IP rights created by an employee within the course of employment automatically belong to the employer; where there is any doubt as to whether an employee or their employer owns IP rights, the relevant legislation largely favours employers."

It's been that way for decades, while the UK was in EU.

I had to get it written into an employment contract that Open Source activity outside of work was my own.

[justaj]

I mean, fair enough if the contract mentions working in your free time to use / contribute to the IP of the company you work for (or that of the competitor), but I was more referring to working on hobby projects not relating to your work.

[tremon]

The situation isn't any different in NL either. Although there is no blanket your-company-owns-your-**s policy (your IPs), the general rule is: if you create something in your spare time that your employer could well have paid you for (i.e. it's in line with your job description), the IP belongs to your employer.

The idea behind this is that your employer pays not just for your time, but also for the skills you acquire during your work. Therefore, the output of those skills has at least partial ownership. There's a huge gray area which contains liabilities and opportunities for both sides, which is why most companies insist on signing off on personal projects. The alternative is fighting it out in front of a judge, should it ever come to that.