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Comment by beachstartup | Hacker News Reader

i'm deleting this comment because it was a bunch of practical (as in non-legal advice) info about running an LLC that could potentially get someone in trouble if taken as advice.

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To anyone reading the comment above, I would be extremely careful with this.

While owning an LLC doesn't violate the H1B visa work conditions, working on an LLC does, even if there isn't any reported employment or income to the IRS.

Your current H1B employer probably won't care, but if USCIS ever caught wind of it (even years later) you will likely lose your H visa. USCIS recently closed the loophole where F-1 students would work unpaid internships without using OPT, and are completely unforgiving about visa workarounds.

yeah, yikes. the road to hell is paved with...

In California, an employer specifically does not own your side work assuming you don't use any of their physical assets, protected know-how or paid-for time.

In other words, if it's genuinely side work.

There's a specific statute to that effect, and they're required to inform you of same.

(I'm not a lawyer either, but I've worked in CA for a long time.)

You're talking about California Labor Code 2870:

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=lab&gr...

The gist: Has to be your own time, own resources, and not related to your company's current or anticipated business.

It's that last clause that's the kicker. For some companies, it's easy to prove -- e.g. wood working is probably unrelated to Twitter's businesses. For other companies that literally work on everything (eg. Google/Alphabet)... it's a pain in the ass. Also: Many companies make reporting the IP or side work a stipulation of your employment contract -- ostensibly, so they can claim that it is related to their business in some way. It's right there in Code 2871. :)

PS: IANAL.

Yes, this.

I consulted with a business attorney in Silicon Valley on this particular issue when I was considering getting a startup going on my own after hours. She basically said that there is enough "gray zone" in what I wanted to do vs. what I was doing for my employer (although I felt they were really distinct areas of computer science) that if my former employer wanted to go after me they could easily bury me in legal BS.

Whoever can spend the most on lawyers wins...

> In California, an employer specifically does not own your side work assuming you don't use any of their physical assets, protected know-how or paid-for time.

Of course, with the exception of explicitly-taken leave, its at least intuitively unclear how one defines any time as not "paid for time" of a salaried employee. (There may be case law that clarifies this, however.)

In practice, you're generally fine if you're not in the office. This may be a harder distinction for remote employees, though.

But in general, "salaried" has not been construed to mean "the company owns every minute outside the office."

I believe that this also means that any signed agreements between employer and employee (some companies used to try this a lot) are null and void. Disclaimer: I'm only a fake doctor, not a lawyer (fake or otherwise).

This is interesting, do you know where I can get more information on this? Thanks in advance

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