I was under the impression Woz didn't realise until after the Apple I was developed that HP might have the rights to it.
From iWoz:
<quote>
Before the partnership agreement was even inked, I realized something and told Steve. Because I worked at HP, I told him, everything I'd designed during the term of my employment contract belonged to HP.
Whether that upset Steve or not, I couldn't tell. But it didn't matter to me if he was upset about it. I believed it was my duty to tell HP about what I had designed while working for them.
[Later, after getting an order for one hundred Apple Is]
I decided I should run the whole thing by HP one more time. I spoke to Pete again. He told me to run it by legal. The legal department ran it by every single division of HP. That process took about two weeks. But HP still wasn't interested, and I received a note from HP's legal department saying they claimed no right to my design.
</quote>
Oh Merciful Book Industry, please do not smite me for reproducing a few paragraphs from a book.
I seem to recall him saying that he had intended on giving it to HP in the first place in his interview in Founders at Work. I don't have access to it, and I'm going off of memory, so you're probably right. :-)
<quote>
The very first thought in my mind was, "I think I signed a document that everything I design belongs to Hewlett-Packard." Even just on my own time, I thought that they deserved it first. And I wanted Hewlett-Packard to build this.
</quote>
From iWoz:
<quote>
Before the partnership agreement was even inked, I realized something and told Steve. Because I worked at HP, I told him, everything I'd designed during the term of my employment contract belonged to HP.
Whether that upset Steve or not, I couldn't tell. But it didn't matter to me if he was upset about it. I believed it was my duty to tell HP about what I had designed while working for them.
[Later, after getting an order for one hundred Apple Is]
I decided I should run the whole thing by HP one more time. I spoke to Pete again. He told me to run it by legal. The legal department ran it by every single division of HP. That process took about two weeks. But HP still wasn't interested, and I received a note from HP's legal department saying they claimed no right to my design.
</quote>
Oh Merciful Book Industry, please do not smite me for reproducing a few paragraphs from a book.