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CA Vs. MA In Battle Over Non-Compete Clause
Lucas123 writes "A case was filed with superior courts in California and Massachusetts involving a former EMC top executive who is trying work for HP. The case is throwing into relief Massachusetts's and California's differing approaches to non-compete clauses in employment contracts. California courts have argued that non-competes hamper a person's ability to traverse the marketplace freely for work, while Massachusetts courts say the agreements actually afford freedom to develop technology without the fear of IP theft."
But there's no reason you have to use the knowledge you gained at your former employer. After all, if they're your FORMER employer, chances are good that there are at least a few thing you'd do differently, given the chance. Why would you want to repeat what you consider mistakes?
If I at my last job learned MySQL. There is nothing in your argument above that follows my FORMER employer owns all that is IP regarding MySQL, nor can you convince me learning MySQL is a mistake.
At my current job I had to learn MSsql (Yea, I know), and if/when I leave there, you still won't be able to convince me that company owns all that is IP about MSSQL.
Anything specific to the company is fine. Sadly almost none of those contracts are worded that way.
My contract was worded with my past employer as so they own PHP, and Linux 2.6, oh and active directory. I learned all of those things while employed there. And this is OK with you? You consider learning those things a mistake? (Minding I already admitted learning MSSQL was)
You should be careful before defending something you clearly don't grasp the full ramifications of.
Upstate New York has a teeny weeny tech company called IBM.