Not trying to justify it, but one could read it defensively in the same light that all employer-patent-grabs share: If you invent something directly in the cour

Not trying to justify it, but one could read it defensively in the same light that all employer-patent-grabs share: If you invent something directly in the course of your assigned tasks as an employee, i.e. they instruct you to invent X and you then do so, for pay, they want some legal basis to prevent you from turning around and charging them for a license to use/sell the invention they just paid you to create.