Yeah IP assignment and invention are pretty wild clauses. They're designed at the behest of investors; so your "brilliant" SWEs can't come up with a great idea,

Yeah IP assignment and invention are pretty wild clauses. They're designed at the behest of investors; so your "brilliant" SWEs can't come up with a great idea, leave your company, and get rich on their own. Some jobs are like that, like maybe ML or AR or something--cutting edge tech kind of work. But like, if you're a mobile app dev building a feature, what are you inventing? And if you do invent something (not impossible; game devs invented all kinds of cool stuff for example), there's not a lot to stop you from quitting, "waiting" a month or two (setting up a company quietly), and marketing/building your product. That said, I know people who've had their side projects picked up by their employers under these kinds of clauses. They're serious, and many companies are serious about enforcing them. Don't just wave them off.