Are intellectual property indemnity clause, which requires the employee to indemnify the employer, enforceable?

Question

Jurisdiction is England (UK), and it's a clause in an employment contract (permanent).

The following question has been posted on reddit, and I happen to be on the same boat.

I've been offered a job I'm really excited about, but I asked my friend [...] and she spotted something she said looked unusual in an employment contract.

x.1: The Employee warrants that the use of the Works by the Company will not infringe the rights of any third party.

x.2: The Employee shall indemnify the Company against all liabilities, costs, expenses and damages incurred by the Company in connection with any intellectual property infringement claim or other claim relating to the Works supplied by you to the Company during the course of providing the services set out in this agreement.

Apparently this is not an uncommon clause in a consultancy agreement or supply contract, but uncommon in an employment agreement. Which makes perfect sense - say I worked as a developer at Google developing the Dalvik VM. This clause would mean I, a mere developer, would have to indemnify Google against Oracle's suit. That seems really extreme.

Can such a clause be enforced in UK (England)?

Answer 1

Sure, it can

But it doesn’t mean what you think it means

It means that if you bring IP into the company then you will indemnify your employer if it turns out you nicked it. So if you had worked at Oracle and then worked at Google, you would indemnify Google if you used great swathes of Oracle’s IP in your work at Google.