[Banking-pm] Interesting court case: watch this space

[Paul Johnson]

On Tue, Feb 20, 2007 at 06:45:30AM -0500, IvorW wrote:

> This is concerning patents and intellectual property.
> It's currently going through appeal.
> 
> http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Patents/2006/595.html

I've not read the whole thing through in detail, but it seems to me that
if you are an employee of a company, and you develop something for the
company on company time, then that thing should belong to the company.
I can't imagine how one could think otherwise.

There seems to be a lot of discussion, and his defence hinges on whether
he was specifically working on a project where he might be expected to
develop what he did, but I find his position untenable.

Much more interesting to me would be a case in which he developed
something totally outside the core business using company time or
resources, or he developed something business related but purely using
his own time and resources, or he was contracted to do something for the
company and created something using that knowledge after his contract
was finished.

But in this case I can't see how the judge could have reached any other
conclusion.

(But remember, I've not read the whole thing in detail, nor do I have
any legal training.  I'm just going on what seems morally correct to
me.)

-- 
Paul Johnson - paul at pjcj.net
http://www.pjcj.net