Re: Informix vs Oracle, alleged trade secret theft

In article <32f06f01.3656357_at_146.178.74.10>, csimich_at_mail.ue.com.au (Christian Simich) wrote:

>If anyone from
>Australia is reading this, could you comment please.
I believe it is illegal/unenforceable here to specify open-ended contracts restricting competitive employment. It is common to write them with a short period (say 3-6 months).

Protection of intellectual property is commonly part of contracts and violation is a reason for instant dismissal (for our US brethren, we have amazingly strong anti-dismissal laws in Australia, requiring counselling and 3 formal warnings before a legitimate dismissal.)

>After all, who can stop a former or disgruntled employee doing a
>'brain dump', over a cup of coffee, to someone working for a
>competitor?

Given proof of this event, and particularly with an appropriate contract in place, you could sue the employee for damages and maybe get an injunction to stop the other party using the secrets.

I've been to several hypotheticals run by the Australian Computer Society, ACARB and WASCAL (Western Australian Society for Computers And Law). These kind of cases have been discussed. There's a book "The Legal Environment of Computing" which is the textbook for ACS certification units in this area. I recommend it as a sobering read.

-- 
Andy Dent, Software Designer, A.D. Software, Western Australia
OOFILE - "the cross-platform OODBMS that speaks c++"
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