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Physician Contract Glossary · Restrictive Covenants

Inventions and Intellectual Property

This clause decides who owns the inventions, content, and intellectual property you create during employment.

An IP clause assigns ownership of what you create while employed: devices, methods, software, written content, sometimes anything related to the practice's field. For most clinicians it is minor, but for physicians who build courses, write, develop devices, or create content on the side, an overbroad assignment can claim work you consider entirely your own.

WHAT TO WATCH FOR

If you create anything outside clinical care, content, inventions, side projects, carve it out explicitly. Broad IP assignment language can otherwise hand the employer ownership of work that has nothing to do with your day job.

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