Yeah, that's something I hadn't considered, now more obviously I'm not a lawyer or I wouldn't have begun by assuming that all parties are acting in good faith ^

Yeah, that's something I hadn't considered, now more obviously I'm not a lawyer or I wouldn't have begun by assuming that all parties are acting in good faith ^_^ Publishing some documents or code before you had worked there would have been a good first step. Paying careful attention to any open source licenses that were published along with any code that your company might have put out that you want to reuse, from while you worked there, an important second step. Remember that just because it's public, doesn't mean it's open or free. Maybe they have a claim to what you want, and you are more talented than all their engineers: this is an off-the-wall idea, but you might consider licensing some of their IP as an olive branch. I know you said you don't have much money, but you catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar. You haven't really said why you want to leave, other than "assholes in legal won't return my calls." And going back to what you said tptacek, just because it doesn't exist yet, or it's actually yours, doesn't mean a lawyer can't get his grubby mitts on it anyway. If you haven't thrown in the towel already, maybe there is still a chance you can negotiate for what you want. I'm sure it's not only that countersigned non-disclosure document. Good luck!