Ugh. So the next step is to make legislate against flagrantly inserting specious waivers of rights in employment contracts to prevent this sort of thing.

I need to go home to check the wording on the two contracts I quit over but they essentially said any idea I have while employed belongs to the company. Though it was subtle. They said my ideas belong to me if I come up with them on my own, unless they relate in any way to a software business, and neither company was willing to put any definition/boundary on what their software business was limited to. Which essentially puts a limit on you developing ideas related to your trade. (The California Law was written to stop companies preventing professionals from being able to practice their trade).

My initial expansive statement is based on this personal experience and on discussions with recruitment agents and senior developer friends who have been in the area longer than me, they all told me it is the norm in the industry. Though I admit most of my professional career has been spent on Wall Street and the City in London, so I don't know, maybe I'm misguided?