Fine line of intellectual property 4

[stel8]

An employee intends to quit and start his own business. He accumulated knowledge at work and has ideas that are not used by his employer. His new company will compete directly with his present employer, especially with new products based on these ideas. What is illegal and what is unethical in this situation.
Thanks for your time and advice.

 

[PSE]

A lot would depend on whether or not a non-compete agreement was signed when originally hired and what terms were included within the agreement.

 

[stevenal]

If accumulated knowledge was the issue, I guess we'd all be indentured. Seems to me the issue is with the ideas. Developed on the job but employer chose not to use them? Or formed while off the job? I don't see a very fine line, just the opposite; wide with gray edges.

 

[TheTick]

In most cases, you can use anything you never documented for your employer. If your employer has a record of it, it's off-limits.

As far as competing, that depends on any agreements you may have signed. Many states and provinces also have laws that protect you from "restraint of trade".

 

[IRstuff]

There's a difference between restraint of trade and a non-compete agreement.

Typically, employers claim all intellectual rights to anything developed as an offshoot from anything work-related. Unless your employer has given you written right of usage, you run the risk of getting sued for theft of IP. Good documentation is usually critical to determining the primacy of claims to IP.

TTFN

 

[dbuzz]

stel8

You need the advice of a intellectual property lawyer, not your brother engineers.

dbuzz

 

[ctmtwilliams]

Dbuzz speaks the truth! You wouldn't want a lawyer giving engineering advice, why would you ask engineers to give legal advice?

 

[stel8]

Thank you all. Good info and advice.

 

[stevenal]

There were two parts to the original question: what is illegal and what is unethical. I agree that lawyers are best suited to answer the first part. Hope we all don't need lawyers to tell us what's unethical. This we are supposed to know.

 

[GregLocock]

Good point. In most of my jobs I have been asked to sign a statement that claims that any invention or idea I have while being employed by my employer belongs to them. I have never signed that statement, I believe it is unethical of them to ask, since they don't pay me for 168 hours a week.

However, if I had signed it then I would certainly be behaving illegally if I set up in competition with them using ideas related to my job with them. I think it would also be unethical, unless those ideas had been offered to, and rejected by, my current employer.





Cheers

Greg Locock

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

 

[HgTX]

Greg--they let you refuse to sign??

Hg

Eng-Tips guidelines: faq731-376

 

[GregLocock]

Yup, drew a line through it. Most recently it bounced its way around a few senior managers for a while, then they filed it away as too hard.

Previous time they (different they) just agreed it was stupid and accepted the change.



Cheers

Greg Locock

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

 

[patdaly]

Hg, I have also refused to sign that covenant for the past 28 years.

Ethically, I would not use something I came up with for a previous employer. If you sign papers saying you will not use anything, at least in my estimation, they could cuse a load of grief by saying you had come up with it in your off hours prior to leaving. It wouldnt hold up in court, but could ruin your carreer and finances trying to defend.

So far, at least with my employers, modifying the contract has not kept me from a job.

 

[weh3]

It's not a question of illegal or not, but a question of breach of contract. Most companies of small to average size cannot afford to litigate an IP claim. If you are not hurting their business, and if your conscience does not condemn you, then you are free to do what you have to do.

The same with noncompete agreements. I am not a moral relativist, and you need to live by what you agree to, but you also have to make a living somehow. Even the Master violated the Sabbath to feed hungry people.

William