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How do you sue / torpedo your ex-employer's IP after you have left a startup?

7 points by randomly123 ↗ HN
I am responsible for an important SKU for my ex-employer.

I had the original idea, made the demo. My employer filed the patent, did NOT include my name as inventor and then made moves to fire me by giving me an impossibly tough project.

By achieving this tough project, I made another piece of IP for my firm.

My ex-firm is

1. Filing patents by reading emails of the engineers. 2. None of the engineers are aware that the firm is filing for IP. let alone inventorship or equity. 3. Firm is also making grounds for ex-employee litigation - i.e they will sue their employees if any of them starts a firm doing the same thing as them. 4. CEO is also making recordings of employees, taking legal admissions on WhatsApp and surreptitiously making old employees sign new employment contracts.

Having done them so much of a favour , now I am doing another favour to them by keeping quiet about the bullshit that I have detected as happening in the firm.

Most of the employees and engineers are long standing and have made large contributions.

I don't want any payout / equity - but I am pissed off enough to torpedo / oppose their patents which are not granted yet.

N.B: The CEO is related to me - :)

16 comments

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randomly123
Country - India
jxr006
good luck. your forgetting companies can destroy you.

If you have one great idea, you'll generate more.. keep moving on. Or you'll spend 1000's to get nothing.

randomly123
They can do ex-employee litigation which means that they can sue me for doing the same thing outside of the place of work.
pizza
Before anything else: lawyer up
tinktank
Publish an anonymous blog detailing everything and then send the details out to all the news sources you can find?
randomly123
I can oppose the patent at the patent office and document all the bullshit in the filing. Then anyone who looks at the IP will also see the bullshit involved in the process and walk away from the IP
randomly123
This dude that runs the firm is my uncle too. Documenting the Bullshit has the following implications - 1. The rest of the employees know what the fuck is going on 2. The investors knowing what is going on 3. The patent office seeing what the hell is going on and fucking up all their IP.
gesman
Did they promised you something and didn't deliver?

OR

You think you deserve to get something from someone else and didn't get what you wanted?

These are two different things. If it is latter - move on and succeed elsewhere.

randomly123
Latter.
Zelmor
Well you got paid for your 8 hours, didn't you? There, welcome to being an employee.
throwaway1177
What about competitors ? If this is important enough for a patent filing, there may be competitors to your ex-firm interested in your skills and expertise. Have you considered that angle ?
randomly123
My skills at the art are not the best in the world. My B.S and M.S are in one field and this invention is in another field.

I can choose to file IP in the same field and seek funding. Or Just destroy the old firms IP. In India there is something called pre grant opposition.

randomly123
I can create a firm of my own to do the same work. But I feel I can funded better in the field of Lithium Ion batteries, so I think I should probably file IP of my old patents, and then sell them Or, I should sue my older firm for equity / money / IP and then put the winnings in my new firm.
thinkingemote
Most employment contracts state that what you make during work time belongs to them. Read what you signed then get a lawyer.

Any retribution will be illegal and may find yourself in hot water.

randomly123
I was on a consultant contract as a manager. Retribution - no - wrongfully obtaining a patent.

https://www.bananaip.com/ip-news-center/patent-opposition-sy...

Pre-grant opposition can be made on the grounds listed under section 25(1) (a) to (k) of the Patent Amendment Act, 2005:

    Wrongfully obtaining the invention
    anticipation by prior publication
    anticipation by prior date, Prior claiming in India
    Prior public knowledge or public use in India
    Obviousness and lack of inventive step
    non patentable subject matter
    insufficiency of description of the invention
    non-disclosure of information as per the requirement or providing materially false information by an applicant
    Patent application not filed within 12 months of filing the first application in a convention country
    nondisclosure/ wrong mention of source of biological material
    Invention anticipated with regard to traditional knowledge of any community, anywhere in the world.
thinkingemote
Then you need to look over your contract. Often contractors also have no IP rights. You do have a copy of the contract you signed right? What does it say?

Also taking the law into your own hands is not good advice no matter how aggrieved you feel. Seek actual legal advice.