I applied for a job as a network engineer with a (then large) UK ISP that had a "we will own all your IP", managed to negotiate that to "I keep anything done on my kit, on my time" (which is fair, I think). Then the ISP was acquired, we were promised that all extra contract negotiations would be honoured, but it seems my contract amendment was in one of a few boxes that somehow did not make it across.
Cue an exciting month or two when I technically had no contract, as the previous workplace no longer existed as a legal entity, but the new workplace had failed to come up with one having equivalent terms and conditions.
ETA: By "all IP", I literally mean "all IP", as it was worded, the company laid claim to even fiction. May have been challengable in court for over-reaching, but I felt much better renegotiating it to terms taht were more liveable-with.
Yes this was how the original contracts (and amendments) were in my original anecdotes. The purview over my non-tech projects was actually more disturbing to me than the tech projects. Creativity is a vital part of my life; I cannot be alive when it has a pall cast over it 24/7.
Cue an exciting month or two when I technically had no contract, as the previous workplace no longer existed as a legal entity, but the new workplace had failed to come up with one having equivalent terms and conditions.
ETA: By "all IP", I literally mean "all IP", as it was worded, the company laid claim to even fiction. May have been challengable in court for over-reaching, but I felt much better renegotiating it to terms taht were more liveable-with.