PayPal Sues Google Over Mobile Payment Execs; Where's The Line Between Non-Competes & Trade Secrets
from the is-there-a-line? dept
On the day Google announced its big mobile payment system, PayPal announced that it's suing Google and two former PayPal execs who went to Google and were apparently heavily involved in this effort. The focus is apparently on Osama Bedier, who apparently had spent the last couple of years at PayPal trying to do a deal with Google to power Google's offering... before jumping ship to lead Google's own effort (which does not apparently use PayPal). Of course, as we've discussed many times, non-compete agreements are unenforceable in California, because California believes that you can't take away someone's right to work.What this really does is highlight the fuzzy line between "right to work" concepts and trade secrets. That's because California does have strong trade secret protections. But if an employee has a right to work... how do you remove any "trade secrets" from their previous job from their brain? There are some details -- including accusations of transferring confidential documents to a computer right before making the job switch -- that certainly look bad. But, on the whole, I tend to think these kinds of lawsuits are a waste of time. Focus on actually competing in the market, rather than suing competitors. Frankly, the world needs more payment solutions, and if there's some competition, then it should force all players to improve their game.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: mobile payments, non-competes, osama bedier, payments, trade secrets
Companies: ebay, google, paypal
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Apparently
Sorry. It was just hard to read because of that.
As for the topic, it's tough to enforce something like this. Those two execs have experience with working on electronic payment systems and Google, offering their own service, would need employees with experience to help them get theirs off of the ground.
I mean, isn't that what we all do? Take our work experience to the next job and use that knowledge to excel at the next place...?
Now, if there were some proprietary PayPal tech going into the new Google system...I could see the problem, but if that's not the case then I don't see how PayPal has a chance here.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Apparently
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Apparently
The focus IS on Osama Bieder (as well as a Stephanie something) and Google's payment offering does NOT use PayPal.
It's common for writers to overuse the word "apparently" apparently to avoid committing to a statement of fact.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Apparently
apparantly it makes it harder to sue them for getting it wrong :P
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Removal of Trade Secrets
A really big hammer,like they use in Looney Tunes. Or maybe there's a business opportunity for Lacuna, Inc.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Interesting
[ link to this | view in thread ]
trade secrets...
- breach of trust.
* i don't go from one company, take their customer contacts and use them at different company [that's not experience]
* thin line between using experience to excel and building competition for your previous employer
- according to very lengthy lawsuit [i have to admit i only read the blog and first few lines of doc], he worked on partnership between PayPal & Google
* he goes to Google, probably partnership is no longer talked between two companies, and viola, they make their own system
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Tade Secrets
- breach of trust.
* i don't go from one company, take their customer contacts and use them at different company [that's not experience]
* thin line between using experience to excel and building competition for your previous employer
- according to very lengthy lawsuit [i have to admit i only read the blog and first few lines of doc], he worked on partnership between PayPal & Google
* he goes to Google, probably partnership is no longer talked between two companies, and viola, they make their own system
I definitely agree with this 100%
[ link to this | view in thread ]