[walshemj]

Yes I am being deadly serious In the UK if its at all related to your work - your employer owns your work if its at all "related" even if you do it outside work on your own equipment.

This is direct from a very senior hr/ir Guy (our GC at the time) when we where discussing the implications of this for a colleague who had come up with some advanced algos for improving big iron systems - IBM used to get him in to consult for them as he was a Mainframe rockstar

And you don't know much about UK and US employment laws as most of it descends from the original M&S act as both countrys share the same roots for their legal systems.