Does Your Employer Own Your Thoughts? 758
MJ writes "Evan Brown has finally lost his 7 year court battle over ownership of thoughts in his brain. Judge Henderson of the 219th District Court in Collin County, Texas granted DSC Communications Corporation, Inc (now Alcatel, USA) a Final Judgement granting DSC ownership of Mr. Brown's idea of a reverse compiler that Mr. Brown claims to have begun formulating twelve years before his employment at DSC and during his off-time while at DSC. Mr. Brown has received media coverage in print, televion and on the Internet: The John Marshall Journal of Computer & Information Law, Wired, Computerworld. This rings similar to previous Slashdot articles on employer/employee IP rights."
You Know... (Score:5, Funny)
Help protest this ruling... (Score:5, Funny)
They stole his ideas? (Score:4, Funny)
Good thing... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Help protest this ruling... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:BIG BROTHER ALCATEL (Score:4, Funny)
KFG
I tried that, it didn't work (Score:5, Funny)
whatever (Score:1, Funny)
obvious (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Sadly, yes... (Score:5, Funny)
Maybe you should tell your boss how you are enslaved working there and perhaps you will be freed.
Re:Help protest this ruling... (Score:2, Funny)
Sucks to be him... (Score:3, Funny)
Then his site loses a battle against slashdot.
Re:I tried that, it didn't work (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Shop Around, Read the Fine Print (Score:3, Funny)
"This opened a can of worms: you have to think something before you can say it: thus, by extension, they own anything you say."
Oh I don't know about that - I have plenty of coworkers who seem to say plenty without thinking. Design review meetings in particular. :-)
Re:rather simple to protect yourself. (Score:1, Funny)
I'd like to buy a vowel Pat. I'd like a U!
Chilling effect ? (Score:3, Funny)
1. The majority of companies that operate in your field of work choose to apply the "I own your inventions" provision as standard in contracts.
2. But you oppose it, on the reasonable grounds that
a)being employed in one company doesn't imply that the company helped develop/conceive the
idea even if the product is sold in the same market.
b)the burden of proof of misappropriation should be on the company, there shouldn't be a burden on inventor who patented the idea, as he's potentially disclosing the idea to the world by patenting it.
3. Therefore, you find yourself out of 80-100% of your job's market and are indirectly forced to get another job, at least until you find some better company in your field (which may never happen)
I can't think of anything more chilling to innovation and invention then a provision that says "everything you haven't disclosed to us before is likely to be ours" ; who in his right mind would ever -think- about inventing something in his field of works, knowing that a previous employer may sue the hell out of him and win, only because of the amount of money they have and the amount you don't ?
Re:Say it isn't so (Score:3, Funny)
Re:What happens if he refuses to hand over the dat (Score:3, Funny)
That's why he should use encryption:
If they do, they should be charged with indeceny (Score:3, Funny)
Re:They stole his ideas? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Say it isn't so (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Read this if you've ever had a thought of your (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Google's employees (Score:2, Funny)
Mail your ideas (Score:2, Funny)
When you need to prove that you had an idea first, you have quite a solid proof. Musicians do this all the time, some authors too.
Re:Say it isn't so (Score:2, Funny)
I think they tried to enforce it but the letters they sent weren't very effective. In hindsight, they should have sent a few Dilbert cartoons. It would have been almost as funny and a lot easier to take seriously.