It is better to seek forgiveness. Not if your side project leads to a lucrative startup and your former employer's lawyers decide some tenuous connection to yo

It is better to seek forgiveness. Not if your side project leads to a lucrative startup and your former employer's lawyers decide some tenuous connection to your former position makes it related work and claim the IP. In that case, it is definitely better not to have signed a bad contract in the first place. Of all the aspects of employment contracts, IP rights might be the number one area where anyone working in a creative industry should have a real lawyer review their contract before signing. Companies sometimes do some really scummy things to their staff, and even if you're happy that the people you're joining today are fair and reasonable, you typically have absolutely no guarantee about who will buy the business out later and whether they will continue to view your contractual obligations the same way.