intellectual-property ontario
Signing over intellectual property rights in Ontario
<p>I have an employment contract to sign which contains a clause that states any intellectual property rights for <strong><em>things I produce outside of work</em></strong> will become property of the firm if it relates to their business.</p>

<p>How enforceable is this in Ontario Canada?
Is there any history of the courts making decisions on matters like this?</p>

<p>My internet research found nothing relating to time outside of work.</p>

<p><a href="http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/C-42/page-4.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">The Copyright Act 13(3)</a> says</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Where the author of a work was in the employment of some other person
  under a contract of service or apprenticeship and the work was <em>made
  in the course of his employment</em> by that person, the person by whom
  the author was employed shall, <em>in the absence of any agreement to the
  contrary</em>, be the first owner of the copyright</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Case law would address the situation where there is no agreement defining what works of the employee are the property of the employer. In this case, there appears to be something in the employment contract, which would therefore be enforced unless specifically prohibited. There is no law prohibiting a contract clause that says roughly "anything you write while working for us is ours".</p>

<p>It is hard to say whether such a clause would he held to be unconsionable, since we don't know what the clause actually says. The basic test is if a condition is manifestly unfair, it cannot be enforced, but if it works to the advantage of one party, it can be. If the clause extends past the period of employment (forward or backward) it might be unfair. It might be unenforceable if "relates to" is construed over-broadly (for example, if you are hired as a lighting technician for a dance theater company and write sci-fi novels as a hobby, the claim could be that dance and sci-fi are "related" as forms of entertainment, but that would be an unreasonable claim). </p>
