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Do I need to declare that I am building something on the side to my hiring company?
Should I think of release my app after I quit my hiring company if the above is true?
If yes, then yes. If no, then no.
In general, I would tell employers about that sort of thing and ask for a quick two-line email that they have no objection to $NAME_PROJECT_HERE.
P.S. The right time to do this was before starting work on the app, since your options are very limited if they say "Cool, we own that now, any questions?"
If you don't have a contract, then you have bigger problems anyway.
But as long as I disclose my side projects they are mine and the company fully supports us in our side projects.
My advice: Read your employee contract and then talk to HR - make sure everything is legit before you make your move. That way there will be no surprises.
stackoverflow.com/questions/401269/states-having-nonassignable-invention-exceptions-similar-to-california-code-sect
I don't know what the default is in cases where there's no explicit agreement, but this outcome seems possible.
www.dilbert.com/2009-01-22/
Forgive me that the links aren't clickable, I'm having trouble submitting this comment and I suspect it's a bozo filter that I'm tripping.
For copyrighted works: In the U.S., anything done "within the scope of employment" (which can be a fact-intensive question) is considered to be a "work made for hire," with the employer as the "author" and thus as the owner.
It depends on the law in your jurisdiction and, potentially, on promises you may have made in your employment agreement. Many jurisdictions will allow employers to enforce an IP agreement which you made as a condition of your employment, and employers in both these and under jurisdictions at least theoretically state claims to such IP in a lot of employment agreements or in appendixes to them. (e.g. buried in the Com…