Ubisoft Injuncts Tremblay For Joining Vivendi

simoniker writes "According to an Ubisoft statement, the company has obtained an injunction against Martin Tremblay, who recently left as Ubisoft Montreal head to run Vivendi Games, in an attempt to enforce a non-compete clause. This is particularly notable/ironic because Tremblay was in charge of Ubisoft Montreal's previous aggressive attempts to enforce its non-compete for game developers who left to join EA Montreal - the whole situation again brings up the discussion of whether non-compete clauses are at all sensible."

Comments

First (bad) pun?

[secolactico]

I'm sure Martin is tremblaying in his shoes right now.

AAAARGH!

Bah!

[Pig Hogger]

Bah!

Québec labour laws are extremely liberal towards workers (heck, here is the only place where Wall-Marde stores have successfully unionized - make sure you check the edit wars on Wikipedia), so it is very likely that they will be told to pound sand...

Stupid

[The Snowman]

I don't know about the legality of such clauses since I am not a lawyer (but I am inclined to think they are legal), but I do think they're dumb. What it does is close doors for the employee. Fired? Don't like your job? Too bad, you can't work for a competitor. While this doesn't lock the employee out of the industry entirely, it does restrict them from a specific area, for example, game companies, security companies, OS companies, etc. So you have tons of C++ and graphics experience working for a game company? Well now you can learn a whole new skillset with Java, Oracle, AJAX, etc. and go write web applications. Sure, it's still programming, but it's totally different technology, different programming paradigm, and requires time to adjust.

Gun, meet foot. Pull trigger.

Re:Stupid

[hyfe]

(but I am inclined to think they are legal)

They are in the US. They're not here in Norway.

I'll take Socialism and Civil Rights over the right to be fucked over any day.

Re:Stupid

[tlhIngan]

The legality of non-compete clauses is largely regional. In the US alone, the degrees to which such clauses are valid varies from state to state. From country to country the differences are even greater.


IANAL, but I believe in Canada, the courts have to see the "reasonableness" of the non-compete - is it for a specific geographica area for a specific period of time, that sort of thing. And the courts in general, when it is an individual v. a group (company, association, etc) fighting a case where the individual is being barred from making a living doing something by the group, the courts have tended to side with the individual. The general feeling is that preventing someone from earning a rightful living infringes on their rights.

So if the non-compete is reasonable in scope (not too large an area) and duration, it most likely will be upheld (e.g., a specific city ("Vancouver"), and for a short period of time ("1 year")), but if it's unreasonable (e.g., a geographic area ("Greater Vancouver Regional District") or a period of time considered unreasonable (probalby anything more than a year)), then they would consider it a likely to infringe on their fundamental rights and disallow the clause.

So here's what I want to know.

[MAXOMENOS]

What's this guy supposed to do between now and when his NCA expires?

Wait for Godot?

Work in another field?

Hope that two years of letting his valuable skills sit unused won't affect his marketability?

Eh?

quick English lesson

[matthewn]

Heads up: You cannot "injunct" something. That ain't a word. The verb you do when you file an injunction is "enjoin." So, "Ubisoft ENJOINS Tremblay FROM Joining Vivendi."

Re:quick English lesson

[sglider]

Sounds like an malformed SQL statement. You forgot the ;

-My- rights online??

[bunions]

more like some other guys rights offline, am I right or what?

Re:-My- rights online??

[bunions]

This whole thing is inane. If you don't like an element of a contract, don't sign it. If you DO sign a contract and think to yourself "this section'll never stand in court" then you can't really complain when you wind up in court.

I wish him luck, I think NC clauses are dumb, but the last time someone asked me to sign one, I just crossed out that section and went on with my life. He's simply paying the price for signing something he didn't want to agree tol

Make Them Pay

[Detritus]

I'd like to see the law changed to state that non-competes are only enforceable if the ex-employee is paid full wages and benefits for the period of the non-compete. If they want to keep someone out of the labor market, let them pay for it.