Headline: Locals watch Texas intellectual-property case
======================================================================
An appellate court in Texas is scheduled to hear an unusual case
next month that could have implications for Puget Sound-area
companies that compete with breakthrough ideas thought up by their
employees.
DSC Communications Corp. in Plano, Texas, fired computer
programmer Evan Brown and sued him for breach of contract after Brown
refused to disclose his idea for a new software system.
After thinking about the problem for years, Brown said he devised
a program that would make old software usable for new computers - a
program that could be worth millions of dollars.
But Brown never wrote down his idea, which exists entirely as
thoughts in his head. And Brown says his idea belongs to him,
especially because he thought most of it up before joining DSC in
1987.
DSC thinks otherwise. Shortly after Brown was hired, the company
had him sign an agreement that gave DSC the rights to any of Brown's
inventions that were related to the company's business.
A district court judge even ordered Brown to disclose his idea,
but the programmer refused and appealed the order to the Texas Court
of Appeals, which will hear the case Dec. 10.
The appellate court is expected to issue a written opinion, which
could change the way we think about intellectual property, said Rob
Mitchell, a partner in the Seattle law firm of Preston Gates & Ellis
L.L.P.
The case has special significance for companies that do business
on the cutting edge of technology, such as the software companies and
biotech firms that dot the landscape around Puget Sound. Those kinds
of companies rely heavily on their workers to generate breakthrough
ideas.
Ultimately, however, the case could affect any company that
depends on new ideas to adapt to changing business conditions - which
says, in effect, that the decision could affect every competitive
company.
Indeed, the case calls attention to the new value of ideas in the
workplace. "It highlights, in extreme form, some fairly basic
lessons about where the value now is," Mitchell said.
Even though this case is unusual, disputes between employers and
employees over intellectual property are commonplace, Mitchell said.
The issue usually arises when an employee quits to join a competitor
or to start a competing business.
And having Brown's case heard in a distant courtroom in Texas does
not diminish its significance for Northwest companies, Mitchell
said. Attorneys track cases all over the country, and many believe
the loser in this trial will appeal the decision again.
"Geography matters less and less, it seems, and certainly so in
the high-tech arena," Mitchell said.
Jones on her own
One day the owner of your law firm comes to work, calls a staff
meeting and drops a bombshell. After 23 years in practice, he's
decided to close the firm and start a second career.
What do you do?
Marianne Jones, an attorney in Everett, did this: She bought the
firm.
"It's not the typical start-up, but it was such a great
opportunity that I couldn't pass it up," Jones said.
Her story began Sept. 18, when John Tollefsen, owner of Tollefsen
& Co. P.C., announced his plans to close his law firm, which had
offices in Everett and Portland.
For Tollefsen, it was time to go. After more than two decades in
the profession, Tollefsen was tired. A big client had left for
another firm. And Tollefsen was a lot more enthusiastic about his
new business, an Internet access company.
"I like to build. I'm not good a cleaning
up everybody else's messes," Tollefsen said. "I was ready
to move."
But the six attorneys and four staffers at the firm were stunned.
"Our first concern was, what about the clients?" Jones said.
That weekend, Jones weighed her options. She could stay home,
raise her three children and have her husband support the family with
his business. Or she could start her own law firm.
By Monday, Jones had decided to strike out on her own, persuaded
by the argument that the firm could support the family if anything
happened to either her husband or his business.
Jones dug into her personal savings and formed Jones Law Group
P.L.L.C., a professional limited liability company with Jones as the
sole owner. She leased some of Tollefsen's office space and bought
the old firm's office furniture and computers.
She laid off two legal assistants and a receptionist, but she
persuaded four of the firm's attorneys and its long-time legal
assistant to stay on. Above all, she inherited 47 of Tollefsen's
former clients.
One month later, the Jones Law Group is a full-service firm for
business clients that is thinking about moving closer to King
County, the better to service its customers in Snohomish County and
the Eastside.
John Tollefsen, meanwhile, is satisfying his entrepreneurial urge
as president of the International Web Broadcasting Corp., an Everett
wholesaler of access to the Internet.
"I was happy to be set free," he said. |
