Labor Code § 2870

Application of provision that employee shall assign or offer to assign rights in invention to employer

(a) Any provision in an employment agreement which provides that an employee shall assign, or offer to assign, any of his or her rights in an invention to his or her employer shall not apply to an invention that the employee developed entirely on his or her own time without using the employer’s equipment, supplies, facilities, or trade secret information except for those inventions that either:

(1) Relate at the time of conception or reduction to practice of the invention to the employer’s business, or actual or demonstrably anticipated research or development of the employer; or
(2) Result from any work performed by the employee for the employer.

(b) To the extent a provision in an employment agreement purports to require an employee to assign an invention otherwise excluded from being required to be assigned under subdivision (a), the provision is against the public policy of this state and is unenforceable.

History

Added Stats 1979 ch 1001 § 1. Amended Stats 1986 ch 346 § 1; Amended Stats 1991 ch 647 § 5 (SB 879).

California Labor Code Section 2870