[natbennett]

A clause like this is pretty standard in software company employment contracts, at least in the California/Silicon Valley zone. There’s sometimes an exception for explicitly named items that pre-date your employment but sometimes they try to claim ownership of stuff you made before joining the company too.

[drob518]

Typically there’s a way to declare things that you are working on before you start at the company to prevent them trying to sue you for rights to prior work.