Ownership
Prior inventions schedule
Lists what you already owned before you joined, so it is carved out of the assignment. Most people leave it blank because they are signing on their first day and nobody explains it.
Where to find it
An exhibit at the back of the invention assignment agreement.
Search your document for: prior inventions excluded inventions Exhibit A Schedule A
Which version do you have?
Wording paraphrased for teaching. Yours will differ; the shape is what matters.
Usually fine
“Employee has listed below all inventions owned by Employee prior to employment.”
Complete and specific. Anything listed here stays yours.
Needs a question
“None. (Left blank at signing.)”
You have attested that you owned no prior work. If you did, that is worth raising, and it is easier to correct early than to argue later.
Ask this before you sign
- Do I have existing work I care about that should have been listed?
- Can I file an amended schedule now?
What this clause means when you hold two roles
Reading the clause is one thing; knowing how it interacts with a second employer's agreement, where it sits in the self-audit, and what to do when two contracts disagree is the part that takes the work. That analysis, the agreement-review worksheet and the searchable library live in the course.
More in Ownership
- Intellectual property assignmentDecides who owns what you create. For someone with one job this is mostly theoretical. For someone with two it is the mechanism by which one employer ends up with a claim over work done for the other.
- ConfidentialityObliges you to protect the company's information, typically without a time limit for trade secrets.
Generic wording written for teaching, not copied from any real agreement. Employment law varies by country and state. This is not legal advice — see the disclaimer.