Today I found about a worrying clause presented to an acquaintance in his new job contract as a developer. I've had a stable job for a few years so I assume I'm out of the loop and would like to know how common this is.<p>The clause is that for a few <i>years after</i> employment ends, the developer is supposed to submit to his former employer all his new "inventions" (i.e. I read that as anything newly created that is of any consequence) so that this employer can unilaterally decide if the inventions are actually rightfully his as a consequence of providing the developer with the opportunity to gather work experience and know-how.<p>This is for a company in the EU, for a mainstream development job with a small company (less than 20 devs).<p>I was aware of confidentiality agreements that extend beyond the period of employment but I've never seen something like this. Have you?
Contracts may be full of crazy over reaching stuff.
When faced with a contract like this, you ask if you can modify it. If they say, “Take it or leave it.” you turn down the offer.<p>If they say yes, find a lawyer and get it looked over.<p>Sometimes you can just cross out stuff, modify or add stuff i.e. add a time limit to an open ended NDA, reduce the scope of a non-compete or eliminate it all together. After a while you get to know what to look for.<p>Once I was given a contract that stipulated that, if there were errors in my work product, I would be <i>”liable for estimated loss of profits”</i>. (!!!)<p>I quoted the offending line and wrote: “Nice try but yeah, no.” I had my lawyer fix it and they were a great client.
If you want to read some previous discussion on a nearly similar topic (it happened to me), go here. Some EU devs also chime in about their experiences:<p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16637900" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16637900</a><p>(spoiler: I didn't take the job)