Re:Developers’ side projects
by akiselev on Friday December 09, 2016 @10:50PM
(#13143919)
This is a complex topic and IANAL but I've been through some legal cases regarding this topic. The most recent ruling about employee duties came in Ransom v Customer Systems Plc in 2012 which cleared up some conflicting precedent and established ground rules.
Long story short: employees have no implicit "duty of loyalty" except for directors and fiduciaries who are responsible for reporting accurate facts (without which limited liability entities could not function). Companies can make a variety of responsibilities explicit in the employment contract but the core principal is that the employee must agree to those responsibilities when they sign up. This is why we have noncompetes/circumvents and moonlighting clauses: if it aint on paper, it aint going to hold up in court.
The big exception is the criminal code. There are a variety of things an employee can do that arent against their employment contract but could be prosecuted as fraud, creating a virtual duty of loyalty.
Long story short: employees have no implicit "duty of loyalty" except for directors and fiduciaries who are responsible for reporting accurate facts (without which limited liability entities could not function). Companies can make a variety of responsibilities explicit in the employment contract but the core principal is that the employee must agree to those responsibilities when they sign up. This is why we have noncompetes/circumvents and moonlighting clauses: if it aint on paper, it aint going to hold up in court.
The big exception is the criminal code. There are a variety of things an employee can do that arent against their employment contract but could be prosecuted as fraud, creating a virtual duty of loyalty.