Proving Intellectual Property Theft

comment by Faran Van Jiniho (U5318): I just went through my employment contract and I can confirm, there's NO clause that touches on me assigning my intellectual property rights to my former employer. The thing is, I can't afford to hire a lawyer given my current financial situation. Excuse my ignorance, but are there any law firms that have a 'no win, no fee' policy and how would one go about enlisting their help.

Before the product can be used that should say.

comment by RenegadeOF (U9457)
posted 1 hour, 9 minutes ago
Would assume you would be able to find somewhere to do a no win no fee case though, or even gain an opinion from them prior to legal action

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They are useless

Were you in work hours when said e-mails were sent?

Hope you get the justice you deserve. I would help but im more of a netspend lawyer. Chin up

comment by ButchBarry_MulletsAreBack (U17994)
posted 6 hours, 43 minutes ago
comment by Faran Van Jiniho (U5318): I just went through my employment contract and I can confirm, there's NO clause that touches on me assigning my intellectual property rights to my former employer. The thing is, I can't afford to hire a lawyer given my current financial situation. Excuse my ignorance, but are there any law firms that have a 'no win, no fee' policy and how would one go about enlisting their help.
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I'm no expert but if I understood Faran's point correctly then it would not need to state this in your contract. If it is generic IP law then it is implicit in all contracts unless stated otherwise I would think?

However, that being the case, it begs the question of why your employer offered you money for the IP in the first place unless he implemented the idea after discovering that he had the right to do so under UK IP Law etc.

comment by redmisty (U7556)
posted 5 hours, 23 minutes ago
comment by ButchBarry_MulletsAreBack (U17994)
posted 6 hours, 43 minutes ago
comment by Faran Van Jiniho (U5318): I just went through my employment contract and I can confirm, there's NO clause that touches on me assigning my intellectual property rights to my former employer. The thing is, I can't afford to hire a lawyer given my current financial situation. Excuse my ignorance, but are there any law firms that have a 'no win, no fee' policy and how would one go about enlisting their help.
__________________

I'm no expert but if I understood Faran's point correctly then it would not need to state this in your contract. If it is generic IP law then it is implicit in all contracts unless stated otherwise I would think?

However, that being the case, it begs the question of why your employer offered you money for the IP in the first place unless he implemented the idea after discovering that he had the right to do so under UK IP Law etc.

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Correct, it would need to be stated in the employment contract. There is also the issue that by telling the company you have in effect put it in the public domain which in the UK means you can't protect it. If you had quite your job them gone back to them with a None Disclosure Agreement before revealing the idea you would have a case. You would have to have insisted the idea came to you after you quite though and it would have been up to them to prove otherwise.

Saying that a judge might be sympathetic to your case but it would be costly. My advise would be do it yourself anyway and make the product better than your former employers. Yes they have got a head start and it will be hard to get into the market but all start ups are. No idea or company is unique and the market is so big there is always room for competing products to be a success.
Just have to find your USPs . After all it was your idea and there might be elements you would will implement differently to them which will work netter.

Sorry it wouldn't need to be state in the employment contract. Typo causing confusion.

I think you're fúcked mate.

Check your former employment contract. Typically we insert clauses like any thing you develop will be the IP of the company. Hope you can get something back but I'm not too sure, in the future, you can share an idea but not how to achieve it.

I developed a couple of seismic processing techniques when I was in Uni and developed them whilst working. I did not share them with my previous employer but did patent them. We use similar variants in the oil and gas industry so there's money in it but not the kind I want.

I have made a few modifications to the acoustics which improves the resolution and have filed a new patent. Plan is to sell that idea to SLB, Halliburton or Baker and retire.