We Own What You Think

In the Salon article, We Own What You Think, Jeff Nachtigal describes the case of Evan Brown, a Texas programmer who has been fighting his former employer for seven years over the ownership of an idea that Brown came up with on his own time.

Bottom line:

What every employee concerned about protecting their own ideas should do, the three lawyers wholeheartedly agree, is be very clear about what they are signing in an employment contract. If they do have a long-running idea, they should make clear in the contract that their idea was developed outside the company.

"Really what it boils down to is, read everything," Lai says. "Don't run into ambiguity as to when it's in effect or not."