Ask HN: Any legal problems working in the same field on the side? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Any legal problems working in the same field on the side?

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I was a freelancer for a medical website and I was trying to help develop this SaaS/online tool that ended up going nowhere. I am aware HIPPA/and all that.

I'm now a contractor/full time for a medical corporation, no relation to above(hiring manager not even aware of former "medical" experience). Pretty much a doctor hired me to try and build this tool he had in mind.

I have decided that due to how much time I sunk into the previous thing that currently has still gone nowhere(other than me getting paid hourly in the past)... I'm going to keep working on it unpaid.

There is no tech overlap, but I'm wondering is this legally okay. I mean I'm not receiving money for the side thing. But I'm hoping, I can get it to become something so in the future when my contract ends I may have a job.

As mentioned conceptually there's no overlap/different tech/and all that. The only "overlap" is that both are medically related.

Update, I decided to get out of it, too much risk, the "start up wannabe" thing on the side can't match my income from my current job and my current job is the fastest/realest thing for me to get out of debt/achieve some semblance of financial security so yeah...

The answer depends on a lot of factors e.g. where are you based? Some states in the US allow you to do whatever using your own resources and your own free time. Even though it might be legally allowed, companies' contracts generally forbid you from doing anything competitive. So:

- Are you doing this using your won resources and time?

- Are you building a potentially competing product?

- What does your contract say about it?

- Can anyone still claim IP on what you've built so far? As in it seems you worked for someone before to build it, did you get compensated for it?

Of course, IANAL, so you'd want some professional advice.

In the past before I started working at current job, I was paid for this work hourly. I think my "contract" for that said I owned nothing(kind of sad) of whatever I develop for this doctor/LLC.

Yeah it's on my own/separate device/not related technologically to the corp.

I don't know if it's a competing though, but it's possible just because the corp is a giant umbrella.

I would have to find my contract, but I'm pretty sure it would say something like no compete. But that's the thing, I'm not getting paid for this work. And it's basic at this time like "is the server still running" because I did a lot of UI/workflow work in the past(almost 3 years ago) but I can't do any more of that work until the app actually gets used/more funding.

I'm just trying to "invest" in this thing where if it becomes valuable I could potentially have a future job.

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