Hate to say this... but...
When you work for a company ALL ideas are theirs unless specifically excluded in your contract.
Saying "I thought of this when out for lunch" simply does not cut it.
Norwegian browser maker Opera Software has filed suit against Trond Werner Hansen, one of its former developers, alleging that Hansen took trade secrets with him when he went to work with Opera rival Mozilla. As first reported by The Next Web, Hansen worked at Opera from 1999 through 2006. There he led design and UI …
Perhaps in the USA - but Europe occasionally has worker's rights.
Some places in the US (Massachusetts especially) lean so heavily toward the corporation that if you worked on software at company A then any use of a computer at company B is regarded as infringement.
It got so bad that many silicon valley firms wouldn't hire anyone who had ever worked in Ma.
I disagree, in the EU, if you come up with an idea on company time then it pretty much belongs to them.
That is why it is so important for dev types to not work on their own projects when at work.
If I came up with a fantastic new way of doing something with software whilst on company time and then went ahead and sold it, then the company can legally assert that the whole shebang belongs to them
Of course, the company first has to prove you came up with the idea on their time, which is where the whole things starts to fall apart...
I dont think it is as bad as over in the US though. And lets face it, if you have come up with some ideas whilst at work that you then adapt for your own projects, the whole thing turns into a bit of a farce.
Having said all that, I am probably completely wrong, its all just so confusing...
Nope, your about on the nail.
Most contracts will stipulate that any code, plans or even ideas proposed/utilized to a company will become their intellectual property. Of course making this stand up in court is a whole different matter. Like 90% of Microsoft's User Agreement, its completely unenforceable :)
"... if you worked on software at company A then any use of a computer at company B is regarded as infringement."
Codswallop! I don't know of any state that allows a company to restrict an individuals ability to earn a living and Massachusetts still hasn't really figured out a solid trade secrets law presumably it has a problem with the UTSA which has been adopted by 46 other states. MA often allows non-compete clauses in employment contracts based on trade secrets but California doesn't allow them at all and hasn't since the late 1800s while also not recognizing such contracts originating in another state except under very limited circumstances. In short, there is no reason along trade secret lines that a CA company wouldn't hire someone who worked in MA.
"When you work for a company ALL ideas are theirs unless specifically excluded in your contract."
How can Opera claim ownership of the designer's general approach?
It will be interesting to see how this one turns out. EU law isn't as barmy as US law but I'm a bit hazy about Norway's civil law system.
@keithpeter
"How can Opera claim ownership of the designer's general approach?"
Because he was paid by Opera to do those designs? Seriously, if paying for getting people to do designs does not give the company ownership of them how on earth is any company going to be able to own anything?
But how do you prevent yourself using knowledge that you gained in any experience anywhere?
If somebody learns how to do long division/tie their shoe laces/type with more than two fingers/index into an array/code for matrix multiplication/learn that yellow on white is effectively invisible, no quantity of non-disclosure contracts is going to prevent your brain using that knowledge in another environment, unless you have some sort of mind-wipe technology like Jonny Mnemonic.
Opera are working on those same features behind closed doors, whilst he is presenting them as part of the Mozilla browser.
Opera never rejected anything, and if he is claiming otherwise, then he has changed his story (again).. He is already trying to manipulate emotions with things like this:
"he has been forced to return to Norway, where he lives with friends and family and has been selling off assets to support himself."
What a knob...
Yep he harmed Opera and threatened their rounding error of market share. Seriously the guy can probably pay the actual economic damages with a couple of paychecks. The only reason either company has any money is because they get paid off by the worlds biggest ad company Google.
You mean, just like Mozilla is making money from Firefox, and Google from Chrome?
Opera isn't being paid off by Google. They have an agreement with Google where Google gets search traffic, and pays Opera for that search traffic. Opera has other similar deals, such as the one with Yandex in Russia.
Hey check out the AC from Opera's PR department.
>Opera isn't being paid off by Google. They have an agreement with Google where Google gets search traffic, and pays Opera for that search traffic. Opera has other similar deals, such as the one with Yandex in Russia.
You hardly invalidated what I said and smartly stayed away from the market share argument. Yes yes Google and others pay for the search traffic but my point was simply we are talking chump change so this is hardly the big deal Samsung vs Apple is. Especially now that Opera is nothing but another fancy skinned Webkit browser.
>So what if we are talking chump change?
See title of my post (hint: bold text above this post).
>Who said this is as big a deal as Samsung vs. Apple?
I was simply pointing out the obvious. Do you need a reference?
>How is the technology used to build the Opera browser relevant?
Because Opera has always been somewhat irrelevant (see market share and bold text again) and now they don't even have a unique rendering engine they are completely irrelevant.
Someone stealing your technology and selling it to a competitor hardly seems like tempest in a teacup.
Whether Opera is relevant or not is... irrelevant. Never mind their dominant position on mobile and their more than 300 million active users.
How does a rendering engine make someone relevant or irrelevant?
Total operating revenue 2012 (USD)
Opera - 216.0 million
Rovio (maker of Angry Birds) - 199.382 million
This is their peer. Lmao.
>Someone stealing your technology and selling it to a competitor
Funny haven't seen a court judgement yet saying its so. I just see a lot of Operas goodwill being flushed down the toilet.
>How does a rendering engine make someone relevant or irrelevant?
If you are nothing but a fancy skin around an open source rendering engine it undercuts the whole argument of owning valuable IP that dominates the market.
Everyone has copied ideas in some form, the problem is everyone wants tabs because its a good idea (Looking at you Outlook, Notes has had tabs for years GIVE ME TABS!). Seperate windows are inefficent (Much like my spelling).
I can't see Opera getting much out of this apart from some news space
Depends on your working style. I frequently have multiple windows of the same app open, comparing information for one screen with something in another. I also prefer to have menus where I can see what is what as opposed to hidden context sensitive crap.
Choice is what is critical for this. The skin on the app should be configurable so either you or I can work efficiently with the application.
So telling someone to make a browser less clunky, more user friendly and simple is in some way the intellectual property of Opera?
UX simplification is exactly what it says on the tin, if as a UX person you are a fan of simplification then ultimately all the work in one area (browsers) will distil down to the same basic end result, a simple way to manage web browsing.
To qualify for damages you have to wonder what damage has actually been done given that opera has a market share of 2 odd percent and seems to be going nowhere in the overall grand scheme of things.
If Mozilla have used the ideas they are claiming have been infringed then how come Opera are not suing them? Or is it simply easier to go after the individual than it would be to go after someone with significantly more market share?
True, but here's the catch and the one time OSS is at a disadvantage to closed source: Opera can read all the source code for Mozilla. So if they see code there which matches code used to implement something they regard as a trade secret, they get to file for it.
Personally I think the specific infringement needs to be part of filing charges. I don't know how to structure it so the Trade Secrets stay secret, but there ought to be a way to do it. In this case, I would think the previous NDA should be sufficient.
.deb
packages