Company Ownership of Employee Ideas

Posted by michael on Wednesday August 14, 2002 @01:05PM from the 0wned dept.

Anonymous Coward writes "Alcatel USA Inc. filed a lawsuit, and won, in a bid to claim proprietary rights for a software idea of one of its former employees, Evan Brown. Evan signed a invention disclosure agreement with his former employers but what makes this case unusual is that Evan never wrote anything down with regards to his idea, meaning that Alcatel seems to be claiming rights to an idea in his head. Does this mean your thoughts may belong to your company? Maybe...." This story has been kicking around for a few days but this is the first legal analysis I've seen of it. Watch what you sign! J adds: see also recent TR story and our 1999 story.

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Will by EvanED · 2002-08-14 13:34 · Score: 4, Funny

He should stipulate in his will that when he dies, the part of his brain that contains the idea be cut out and sent to that company with a letter stating "pursuant to court ruling blah blah blah, here is the idea I thought of."
If I was an Alcatel employee about to leave... by xelph · 2002-08-14 14:18 · Score: 5, Funny

... I would claim that I just had some idea about a new kind of porn site, then I would contact the media to let them know that Alcatel was considering entering the porn business any day...