http://www.salon.com/2004/08/18/evan_brown/
Follow-up:
https://everything2.com/title/The+Thoughts+of+Evan+Brown
Solution: never disclose anything to your employer unless absolutely required. If you have a new idea, keep it quiet until you quit your job.
FTA:
(After 5 1/2 years of litigation, Judge Curt B. Henderson of Collin County, Texas' 219th District Court ruled in favor of Alcatel, and Brown was obliged to fully disclose the idea to Alcatel and only Alcatel, and to repay in full Alcatel's legal fees of more than $330,000, which according to Brown forced him to sell his house and other assets.
During the court case, Brown argued that since his idea had never been committed to paper or physically manifested in any way, there were no grounds for the company to claim ownership of his very thoughts, and he drew comparisons to the fact that an invention cannot be copyrighted or patented until it is transferred from an idea onto paper.
He didn't handle his case well, which torpedoed it. But in parts of the US, yes... anything you do during the course of your employment is owned by the employer.
As a contractor, I've been asked to sign contracts with similar clauses. Uh... no. I have other customers, and you don't own what they pay me to do. Their typical counter is "But this is a standard clause".
Telling them to "no contract" is usually the only option. They just can't understand why an entirely one-sided contract isn't good for me.
