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From: mats@dual.UUCP (Mats Wichmann)
Newsgroups: net.legal
Subject: Re: Intellectual property agreements with an employer
Message-ID: <305@dual.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 25-Feb-84 18:52:58 EST
Article-I.D.: dual.305
Posted: Sat Feb 25 18:52:58 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 26-Feb-84 04:59:08 EST
References: <349@bnl.UUCP> <383@decvax.UUCP> <996@cbosgd.UUCP>
Organization: Dual Systems, Berkeley, CA
Lines: 36

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As a followup to Mark Horton's question (alas, I don't claim to be an expert
on this either) -

    There are usually two parts to this - development using the company's
    resources, and development resulting from work you have done for the
    company. I.e., if you do some work that teaches you about a certain
    subject, and this knowledge later assists you in making a discovery,
    (while still employed with the company) the company may claim rights to 
    this discovery. 

    What I understand from talking to some people who have gone through
    lawsuits after changing jobs is the following:

    EVERYTHING is extremely difficult to prove on the part of the employer.
    The one, almost global argument that gets nearly everyone off is that
    the information obtained while working for the employer is NOT proprietary;
    i.e, substantially the same information could have been gathered during
    employment for a different company. This usually seems to take care of
    the invention disputes, and almost totally squashes the non-competitiveness
    clauses in employee contracts. Above all, no one can deny you the right to
    make a living; only if you are trying to make a living off of information
    that is totally, undisputably, prorietary information of a company you
    have worked for previously can your rights be restricted.

    I would be interested in hearing more comments from people who have been
    sued after changing jobs -- this is a very interesting subject, and
    important to a lot of us. Think about it - how many of the UNIX programmers
    out there have not been approached about changing jobs, to a large extent
    because of what you have learned for the company you work for now???


	Mats Wichmann
	Dual Systems
	{ucbvax,amd70,ihnp4,cbosgd,decwrl,fortune}!dual!mats