I want to create a hobby project and release it under MIT. I work as a developer professionally and i have some clauses in my employment contract that gives any IP to my employer. My employer is open to amending these and/or adding exceptions for specific projects. Can anyone point to guidance resources on how to formulate such exceptions properly?

// EDIT: My contract is not totally strict, it refers to applicable laws and the wording is something like ‘knowledge gained through company activities belong to the company’, which is probably intentionally vague. Also: i like my job and employer and they are open to FOSS. My only concern is whether some higherups might disagree at a later point which is why i want to get the wording right. Will not spend money on a lawyer - it’s not that important to me. Thanks for sharing your experiences so far.

CC image ref.: https://thebluediamondgallery.com/legal/employment-contract.html

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[–] DacoTaco@lemmy.world 4 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Not sure why youre getting downvoted, you are right. If you got access to knowledge via your job that has nothing to do with your job and use that knowledge, youre fucked.
For example, you work in a team that makes a ecommerce website, and have access to the wms team's files. In those files you read about barcodes and their rules/parsing specs, some of those files are only to be read under a contract. Making anything related to the barcodes, even in your own time and equipment, is a nono.

Trust me, ive been in the grey zone and have contacted lawyers about it.