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> considering your competitors' employees already infiltrated your slack channel. It was a public community slack channel. There may have been proprietary/prot
by reaperman 3y ago
> considering your competitors' employees already infiltrated your slack channel.
It was a public community slack channel. There may have been proprietary/protected information shared in there but in my naive opinion (NAL!) that wouldn't be protected by trade secrets if it was shared publicly. Some things could still be protected by copyright or trademark but it's pretty unlikely. It's possible copying the API could be infringing but Google v. Oracle[0] makes that a very uphill battle.
"Secret sauce" is highly valued by founders and product managers but IMHO it's generally overvalued and doesn't constitute a moat. For the most part, competitors are allowed to copy most things and leverage whatever other advantages they have over the original innovators.
0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_LLC_v._Oracle_America,_Inc https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_LLC_v._Oracle_America,_....
- anigbrowl 3y agoLitigation is about more than the legal argument alone, and the legal arguments often turn on specific facts that may seem general on casual inspection. Other factors to consider include cost, embarrassing facts that may emerge during discovery, and reputational damage. That's why cases are often settled on the eve of trial, sometimes for significant sums. Getting a professional opinion on the options is generally better than just making assumptions. Copycats and rip-offs are a fact of life, but that doesn't mean they should enjoy free reign. It's not that I think litigation is better than execution, but people exclusively advocating the latter are expressing an opinion about how they think things should work in a perfect world while not having any assets of their own on the line.
- jacquesm 3y agoThe 'Eve of Trial', how appropriate.