A few months after I left a company, I got an email from their attorney telling me to sign an invention assignment form. No other information, so I asked to see

A few months after I left a company, I got an email from their attorney telling me to sign an invention assignment form. No other information, so I asked to see the provisional patent that I was asked to assign to the employer -- after some back and forth they forwarded it to me. The provisional broadly described an entire academic domain with no specifics whatsoever. Imagine something like "you can use data to recommend things to medical patients." No specifics about what the "data" or "recommend" or further defining which patients. A long time ago, a former employer sued me for stealing their trade secrets but wouldn't tell me what trade secrets I stole were. After a few rounds of litigation, the employer admitted the "trade secret" was a literally a section of HIPAA. Shortly thereafter, the case was dismissed with prejudice and the former employer paid my legal fees (and then some for the trouble). It seemed clear they knew there was no merit to their accusations, but it was more about a vindictive smear campaign. (also, belated thanks to HN... my plea for help to this forum was met with a referral to an attorney that ended up successfully sorting this issue out for me) That experience scarred me enough to basically refuse to sign the ambiguous invention assignment agreement from the first paragraph. You don't know how the companies will use these patents, and even if a patent isn't granted you're often still asked to assign any rights to the invention. An overly broad invention assignment form opens the possibility for organizations to come after you with meritless lawsuits claiming you're using the company's property in your future work... which, even if you know you'll eventually prevail, it's still a total disruption to your life. This whole system is broken.