MA Gov. Wants To Ban Non-Competes; Will It Matter? 97
curtwoodward (2147628) writes "Entrepreneurs in Massachusetts say the state's legal enforcement of non-competition agreements hurts innovation — if you're going to get sued by Big Company X, you're probably not going to leave for a startup in the same industry. But those contracts have powerful supporters, including EMC, which is by far the state's largest tech company. Gov. Deval Patrick is finally picking a side in the debate by introducing his own bill to outlaw non-competes and adopt trade-secrets protections instead. Just one catch: he's a lame duck, and will be out of office in January."
Re:As an EMC employee in Massachusetts... (Score:3, Informative)
EMC's employment agreement is ridiculous (Score:5, Informative)
Ex employee here, my lawyer pretty much laughed at the incredible reach of EMC's employment agreement, which effectively states that "If at any time, any point in the future, you publish an idea, which we believe you may have originally thought of while working for us, even though you never used it, wrote it down, or discussed it with anyone during your employment; you agree to immediately turn over all rights to said idea, including buying out the rights from any co-creators, at your own expense".
Re:EMC's employment agreement is ridiculous (Score:4, Informative)
Like patent claims, they're overbroad and often unenforceable in their details. But spending the time and money to fight it in court is quite expensive, and out of the reach of most day to day technology workers. The result is to chill transfers to companies that are involved in even _vaguely_ related fields, not merely those who compete directly.
precedent (Score:4, Informative)
Oh wow! Now I HAVE to type my own comment header r (Score:5, Informative)
And you've taken away the I-tag again! I don't know why I'm still coming back here...
Apple, of course, invented their UI all by themselves, right? Never took any ideas from Xerox. Nope.
Nope. They bought the rights from Xerox. Different thing entirely. Micorsoft and the movie industry, though - they wer another matter and have the lawsuits (and subsequent settlement in the case of Microsoft) to prove it.
I wish the Apple-haters around here would at least get their history straight. I'm not an Apple fanboy. However, I am a computer history fanboy and I wish the amateurs would at least not keep spreading misinformation.