Intellectual property stands out. Who owns your code, your patents? Is the work Alice does for Bob prior art to invalidate a patent Alice filed working with Car

Intellectual property stands out. Who owns your code, your patents? Is the work Alice does for Bob prior art to invalidate a patent Alice filed working with Carol? How do Bob and Carol know and prove in court they own Alice's work and not the other? One simple answer: they know because Alice signed an employment contract assigning all IP to them, and foregoing any other employment. There are a ton of other reasons: Alice could be party to both sides of a vendor relationship or acquisition. Alice could be short changing the jobs expecting 40 hours of her time each but only getting 30 or less. Alice could be working for competitors, where having access to Bob's datasets helps her work with Carol disproportionately and without his knowledge or consent. > Most employees just wanna earn enough to retire I mean, you presumably also want to retire, and not lose your job, and not go to jail. Maybe even do some good work?