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It sounds HP's suit is based not on a non-compete agreement, but a provision of his $35M severance package in which he agreed not to disclose trade secrets or c
by msmith 16y ago
It sounds HP's suit is based not on a non-compete agreement, but a provision of his $35M severance package in which he agreed not to disclose trade secrets or confidential info.
That's the impression I got from the article, anyway. I suppose it wouldn't be hard to argue that he can work for Oracle without disclosing HP trade secrets.
- krschultz 16y agoIn my experience that is tough to argue in court.
- dfranke 16y agoIt seems to me that there are two possibilities, and either way, Hurd should win: 1. It is possible for Hurd to work for Oracle without disclosing HP trade secrets. Then Hurd is not breaching his agreement by working for them. 2. It is not possible for Hurd to work for Oracle without disclosing HP trade secrets. Then the agreement is a de-facto non-compete agreement, and therefore unenforceable.
- mbreese 16y agoIf this turns out to be the case, the bigger question is whether or not he gets to keep the severance package... If he does end up at Oracle, I suspect that the money given to him by HP to go away too...
- bmelton 16y agoI admittedly don't know the details, but if he has a severance, that usually implies that he was let go. All the non-competes I've ever read were effectively voided in the event of employer termination, unless the severance amount also included a non-compete clause itself.
- oiuytgfrgh 16y ago>argue that he can work for Oracle without disclosing HP trade secrets. Depends, is "treat engineers like crap until they leave - thus reducing costs" an HP trade secret?
- hga 16y agoNo, at least not according to James Gosling (http://nighthacks.com/roller/jag/entry/escaped_from_reality http://nighthacks.com/roller/jag/entry/escaped_from_reality) and many others who have left Sun after the acquisition.