Employee IP Assignment
Also called: Work-for-Hire Clause · Employee Invention Assignment
An employee IP assignment clause transfers ownership of work created during employment — code, designs, inventions, content — to the employer, rather than leaving it with the individual employee who created it. Without this clause, ownership can default in ways that surprise employers, especially for creative or technical roles.
In more detail
In many jurisdictions, work created by an employee within the scope of their employment defaults to employer ownership even without an express clause — but the boundaries of "scope of employment" are genuinely contestable, particularly for side projects, out-of-hours work, or work using personal equipment.
An express assignment clause removes that ambiguity by covering IP created "in connection with" employment more broadly, and is standard practice for any role that creates code, content, designs, or inventions as part of the job.
A carve-out for the employee's genuinely pre-existing or unrelated personal work is normal and reasonable — the clause should assign work-related IP, not claim everything an employee creates in their personal time on unrelated matters.
A software engineer builds a feature during work hours using company systems. The employee IP assignment clause makes that code company property from creation, regardless of whether the employment contract is later terminated before the feature ships.
What our lawyers check
- Whether assignment is broad enough to cover the actual scope of the role
- Whether there's a reasonable carve-out for genuinely unrelated personal work
- Whether the clause covers inventions, code, designs, and content consistently
- Alignment with the same organisation's contractor IP-assignment terms, if any
Contracts where this clause matters
Related terms
This definition is general information about commercial contracting practice, not legal advice. How a clause operates depends on the specific wording of your agreement and the law that governs it. For advice on your contract, have it reviewed by a lawyer.
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