[thechat] Intel says employees are chattel

Chris Marsh chris at webbtech.co.uk
Thu Aug 15 18:22:00 CDT 2002


Kevin

> More ridiculous stuff :)

Perhaps not so ridiculous.

[..]

> When Brown mentioned the idea to his employers while he worked for DSC
> Communications of Plano, Texas (subsequently bought by
> Alcatel) DSC decided
> it owned the rights to Brown's insight and demanded that he
> revealed his
> idea. Brown refused and he was fired. DCS then launched legal
> action against
> him to gain possession of his thoughts.

He might as well have taken a company laptop home and refused to give it
back as far as his contract went.

[..]

> down the idea, only solved part of it while employed by DCS
> and thought of
> some of it outside office hours.

This would, I believe, be irrelevant if he signed the contract mentioned
below.

> His former employer maintained that he had signed a contract
> which contained
> a clause giving DCS ownership rights of any of his "inventions".
>
> Brown's idea was deemed to be an "invention".
>
> On his Web site Brown claims he's been "railroaded" and has
> vowed to appeal.

Bottom line, he broke the terms of his contract. This type of contract
is not uncommon. He should have read it thoroughly and heeded it's
terms.

> He also launched a scathing attack on the justice system in Texas.

The justice system in this case is merely enforcing contract law. If the
man had no intention of revealing his idea to his employers, why did he
mention it in the first place?

I have great sympathy with the guy, but he shouldn't have signed the
contract in the first place if he was unhappy with the terms. If his
idea was worth so much money he should have kept it to himself, left the
company and then pursued it himself ensuring that however he did it
(even by proxy) he did not break the terms of the contract he had
signed. If not, why not inform his employers of the details?

Having said all of this, I have not seen the contract, but I have seen a
whole multitude of contracts that have this type of clause.

Regards

Chris Marsh





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