Research notes

Why personal projects need protection.

The laws and workplace policies behind our proposal.

Legal baseline

Employment alone does not settle ownership.

In Stanford v. Roche, the Supreme Court explained that employment alone does not transfer an inventor's rights to an employer.

Contracts can transfer those rights. State law can limit what an employer may claim. The details matter.

Public example

Publishing can be restricted by policy.

Apple's February 2026 policy restricts employees from distributing personal apps, with exceptions. Its rules also cover outside work and invention ownership.

Read Apple's policy, pages 9, 11 and 12

State patchwork

State protections have limits.

State	Existing protection	Limits
California	Labor Code section 2870 limits assignment of certain inventions built on personal time without employer resources or trade secrets.	Exceptions still cover work related to the employer's business or anticipated research and development.
Washington	RCW 49.44.140 has a similar personal-time and no-employer-resources framework.	"Employer business" and "anticipated research" can still become broad categories.
Minnesota	Minn. Stat. section 181.78 limits some invention-assignment terms and requires notice.	The same related-to-business and resulting-from-work exceptions matter.
New York	Labor Law section 203-f limits assignment of inventions developed entirely on personal time without employer resources or trade secrets.	Carveouts still leave uncertainty for modern software workers.
Illinois	The Employee Patent Act makes certain overbroad assignment provisions unenforceable.	Workers may still bear the burden of proving their project qualifies.
North Carolina	G.S. 66-57.1 protects certain employee inventions built on personal time without employer resources or trade secrets.	Like other states, it still contains important employer-facing exceptions.

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Donation structure

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How nonprofit tax status affects advocacy

501(c)(3)

Best for education, research, public reports, and worker resources. Lobbying must stay limited.

501(c)(4)

Better suited for legislative advocacy and lobbying campaigns. Donations generally are not tax deductible as charitable contributions.

Sources