LifeinAsia - 10:49 pm on Aug 2, 2010 (gmt 0)

get my head around ownership

You and your client should have a written contract specifying this issue explicitly. Then there should be no misunderstanding or ambiguity over the issue.

If it's not in the contract (or there is no contract), then that issue needs to be addressed right away. :)

If your client wants a no-compete clause, he should add it into the contract. If your client wants full ownership of the application (i.e., preventing you form re-using the code on any other project), he should add that into the contract as well (that should correspond to a higher payment to you as well).