Non Disclosure Agreements?

[Frobby]

16 minutes ago, bird watcher said:

I’m not a lawyer either and I know intellectual property lawyers who make the big bucks because of the complexity that exists in the patent world.  

I guess we might have seen St. Louis with a suit against Sig and company if there was something enforceable when they left for Houston. 

It’ll be interesting going forward as technology increases if something blossoms that is considered patentable. If created while under the employ of the Orioles, would the Orioles own the rights?

Most employment agreements assign the rights to any work product of the employee to the employer.    

I should add that besides patents, copyrights come into play with software.    And then, there’s good old “trade secrets,” which can apply even when patents and copyrights don’t.   That is more a matter of state law, whereas patents and copyrights are governed by federal law.   

I’ve now told you 90% of what I know about these subjects.  

[bird watcher]

1 hour ago, Frobby said:

Most employment agreements assign the rights to any work product of the employee to the employer.    

I should add that besides patents, copyrights come into play with software.    And then, there’s good old “trade secrets,” which can apply even when patents and copyrights don’t.   That is more a matter of state law, whereas patents and copyrights are governed by federal law.   

I’ve now told you 90% of what I know about these subjects.  

Thank you for the input. I knew the term “patent” was not exactly what I was meaning. The point is there are other types of protected property that could be considered owned by the team not the developer. 

I assume there are teams of lawyers who are in on this at the mlb level. 

[Snutchy]

1 hour ago, Frobby said:

Most employment agreements assign the rights to any work product of the employee to the employer.    

I should add that besides patents, copyrights come into play with software.    And then, there’s good old “trade secrets,” which can apply even when patents and copyrights don’t.   That is more a matter of state law, whereas patents and copyrights are governed by federal law.   

I’ve now told you 90% of what I know about these subjects.  

I'm interested in the other 10%.

[jsbearr]

There are exceptions, but the general rule is that you cannot take materials with you.  In other words, you can take the knowledge you accumulated and recreate something, but you cannot take reports, coding, etc. with you.  In some occasions, an employee may be allowed to seek something out (i.e., coaching) and would refrain from doing his current work for the length of a contract or whatever.

[Frobby]

25 minutes ago, Snutchy said:

I'm interested in the other 10%.

That’ll cost ya.   

[weams]

6 hours ago, Frobby said:

Most employment agreements assign the rights to any work product of the employee to the employer.    

I should add that besides patents, copyrights come into play with software.    And then, there’s good old “trade secrets,” which can apply even when patents and copyrights don’t.   That is more a matter of state law, whereas patents and copyrights are governed by federal law.   

I’ve now told you 90% of what I know about these subjects.  

That is good enough for me. Thank you.

[atomic]

8 hours ago, 24fps said:

It might be good to draw a distinction between a NDA and a “non-compete”.  It’s the latter that would prevent an exec from moving to another team for a specified amount of time. 

Ive never seen this in sports, but perhaps that time will come. I would be hugely surprised if NDA’s aren’t common applying to IP and bad mouthing.

A non compete wouldn't be enforceable for baseball management.  Elias has the right to be employed and the Orioles aren't even competing against the Astros.  Maybe the head of corporate sponsors at the Yankees could be stopped from working for the Mets as they could steal customers.