This may make it less likely that your employer will take you to court, but if you do this and your employer does choose to pursue a case against you after you leave the court will see it as intentionally deceptive and it definitely won't help your argument.
My reasoning is the opposite. If one tells their employer about their side project, the court is likely to interpret this as an admittance by the employee of potential conflict of interest. Otherwise, employer could defend by stating “Why would I seek approval from my employer? This is clearly outside the scope of my employer's business and of my employment contract.”
Above reasoning is in line with why companies don't search for existing patents when developing new technologies. If they search for prior work and are found guilty of infringement, that's considered willful infringement, in which case damages are tripled.
> Above reasoning is in line with why companies don't search for existing patents when developing new technologies. If they search for prior work and are found guilty of infringement, that's considered willful infringement, in which case damages are tripled.
The (US) patent system is so fucked up (granted you're talking about the US), where if you try to lookup patents, you might be fucked. If you don't try to lookup patents, you might be fucked as well. Damned if you do, damned if you don't
This may make it less likely that your employer will take you to court, but if you do this and your employer does choose to pursue a case against you after you leave the court will see it as intentionally deceptive and it definitely won't help your argument.