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A comment on Ask HN: How can I work towards building a company while employed?. Parent comment

Re:Ask HN: How can I work towards building a company while e... by archi42 on Monday May 27, 2019 @04:33AM (#20020426)
Wow, okay. I honestly didn't believe that was legally possible - and thanks for pointing out that I'm probably wrong. I checked the wording of my contract, and regarding "my employer has ownership of my work" it explicitly says "im Rahmen dieses Arbeitsverhältnisses" -> "as part of this employment relationship". So I suppose I'm safe (there is a clause that I have to ask for permission to do side jobs; but I know company policy is that permission is always granted and this is about informing them about it).

edit: see geocar's reply.

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Re:Ask HN: How can I work towards building a company while e... by i_don_t_know on Monday May 27, 2019 @07:36AM (#20021272)
I asked about this before joining my current employer: I'd like to write a tetris clone and sell it on the AppStore (that was the specific example I used). I promise I won't use company resources. They said please don't. It's a grey area. Worst case you'll have to explain to a judge why your code doesn't infringe on anything the company owns or does. Even if it's something as trivial as a tetris clone.

You are however fairly safe if it's completely different from your work, for example, pottery or writing fiction (assuming your company does neither).

As for "as part of this employment relationship", I'm not a lawyer but I wouldn't assume that it applies only to what you do at the office. It might very well apply to anything while you are employed there. You need to clear the scope of that with HR or a lawyer.

You definitely don't want to base your company on shaky legal grounds. You might lose your company, your product, and your job. It probably won't look good in your Arbeitszeugnis either.

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Re:Ask HN: How can I work towards building a company while e... by harlanji on Monday May 27, 2019 @11:54AM (#20022994)
If it doesn't work out Then try again.

If everyone acts in good faith Then nobody should end up in jail.

If too many people end up in jail Then major problems could occur.

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Re:Ask HN: How can I work towards building a company while e... by stingraycharles on Monday May 27, 2019 @04:47AM (#20020482)
Right, and it also depends upon your role (I was in a leadership position). Regardless, the law is intentionally vague (“could be related to your work” leaves room for interpretation), and it’s better to get explicit permission.
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Re:Ask HN: How can I work towards building a company while e... by icedchai on Monday May 27, 2019 @01:39PM (#20023869)
I'd say it's always better to ask forgiveness. They probably won't find out anyway, so why waste everyone's time (especially your own.) You'll spend more time writing useless emails to HR / lawyers than working on your side project. The simplest thing is to just do your thing, keep it to yourself. In the very unlikely event someone brings it up, you just play dumb. (Your Tetris clone isn't infringing on the company anyway.)
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