it seems to me if the technology is unrelated, for example, if you work for an enterprise software company and you created a web app for consumers regarding you

it seems to me if the technology is unrelated, for example, if you work for an enterprise software company and you created a web app for consumers regarding your hobby of sports. i think what joel's saying is if that they're sick enough and the employer wants to sue you, they definitely can, they have the legal ballast to take you to town. but would they? i guess that question depends on a couple things, one if they have some personal vendetta against you, they want nothing more than to make your life miserable. or two, they think what you've built is lucrative and they want a piece of it. i'm just curious if there are precedents where someone's side project, completely unrelated to their company's product/market/customer base, but it ended up being lucrative and the company negotiated some shares/ownership of the side project become startup.