My husband recently received a call from a former fellow employee who accused him of stealing intellectual property (computer code) from a facility where he was employed the year prior with the intent of selling it or using at a competitive facility.
My husband freely admitted that he did have a copy of code snippets and some database utility scripts, but did not see the harm in possesing this information since most of it was actually acquired from free listserv's, but that some of it was indeed created while he was an employee there.
After debating the moral and legal implications, the caller notified my husband that he had reported his "theft" to upper management and that they were considering legal action. Shocked and concerned, my husband offered to delete any code he had in his possession, knowing that none of it was worth this kind of problems.
We immediately contacted one of the managers that the offense had allegedly been reported to and explained our stance - assuring him that there was never any intention to use the code for monetary gain or to give to a competetor- and that it was only retained for reference. We also pointed out that the code we had in our possesion was not the kind of code that would normally be considered "sellable".
We asked what should be done, to which he said "destroy what you have". We asked if there would be charges brought against us, as accused by the ex-coworker, and were informed that he would discuss with upper management and get back with us.
Extremely nervous about what these charges might lead to, we waited for a call back. The next day my husband received an email from a VP Level Executive giving notice that it had come to his attention that intellectual property had been taken with the intention to sell or use at another competitor's facility. He ordered that all code be destroyed, notifcation to be given if any code had been sold or used, and a reply within 5 days.
Since we had already complied with these demands earlier (after speaking with the above mentioned manager) my husband replied back stating that the demands had been met.
There was a simple acknowledgement reply, but nothing more that leads me to believe that the problem has been fully resolved. We have been unable to reach the VP by telephone to discuss further and have not received a call back from the manager as promised.
Our concern is that not only was this accusation sent to my husband and the internal IT managers within the facility where he used to work, it was also copied to upper management at his current employment. Fortunately, he had already notified his direct supervisor of the original accusations made via telephone, so hopefully this has dampened the impact of the accusing email.
Accusations of this sort will obviously make it difficult for my husband to ever return to his previous place of employment, even though he originally left on very good terms, particularly if he is not fully cleared of the charges. There's also concern that with the email being sent to his current employer, there will also be questions about his trustworthyness if this matter is not resolved properly.
We are in a small community with limited opportunities for IT Professionals and fear that my husband's employment/career options have been damaged here.
Our current plan is to seek legal advice to bring closure to this matter, but wondered what your opinion or advice would be as well. Does this former employer have a case? Should we be overly concerned? And on the flip-side of this question, do we have rights to prosecute for damages/defamation since the accusations were sent to my husband's current employer with no evidence of wrong-doing? My assumption is that the answer is NO unless he loses his job over all of this.
In addition to the above, I would like to note that there was never an IP contract signed with this company since their primary business is not software development.
Thank you for your inputs and advice.
My husband freely admitted that he did have a copy of code snippets and some database utility scripts, but did not see the harm in possesing this information since most of it was actually acquired from free listserv's, but that some of it was indeed created while he was an employee there.
After debating the moral and legal implications, the caller notified my husband that he had reported his "theft" to upper management and that they were considering legal action. Shocked and concerned, my husband offered to delete any code he had in his possession, knowing that none of it was worth this kind of problems.
We immediately contacted one of the managers that the offense had allegedly been reported to and explained our stance - assuring him that there was never any intention to use the code for monetary gain or to give to a competetor- and that it was only retained for reference. We also pointed out that the code we had in our possesion was not the kind of code that would normally be considered "sellable".
We asked what should be done, to which he said "destroy what you have". We asked if there would be charges brought against us, as accused by the ex-coworker, and were informed that he would discuss with upper management and get back with us.
Extremely nervous about what these charges might lead to, we waited for a call back. The next day my husband received an email from a VP Level Executive giving notice that it had come to his attention that intellectual property had been taken with the intention to sell or use at another competitor's facility. He ordered that all code be destroyed, notifcation to be given if any code had been sold or used, and a reply within 5 days.
Since we had already complied with these demands earlier (after speaking with the above mentioned manager) my husband replied back stating that the demands had been met.
There was a simple acknowledgement reply, but nothing more that leads me to believe that the problem has been fully resolved. We have been unable to reach the VP by telephone to discuss further and have not received a call back from the manager as promised.
Our concern is that not only was this accusation sent to my husband and the internal IT managers within the facility where he used to work, it was also copied to upper management at his current employment. Fortunately, he had already notified his direct supervisor of the original accusations made via telephone, so hopefully this has dampened the impact of the accusing email.
Accusations of this sort will obviously make it difficult for my husband to ever return to his previous place of employment, even though he originally left on very good terms, particularly if he is not fully cleared of the charges. There's also concern that with the email being sent to his current employer, there will also be questions about his trustworthyness if this matter is not resolved properly.
We are in a small community with limited opportunities for IT Professionals and fear that my husband's employment/career options have been damaged here.
Our current plan is to seek legal advice to bring closure to this matter, but wondered what your opinion or advice would be as well. Does this former employer have a case? Should we be overly concerned? And on the flip-side of this question, do we have rights to prosecute for damages/defamation since the accusations were sent to my husband's current employer with no evidence of wrong-doing? My assumption is that the answer is NO unless he loses his job over all of this.
In addition to the above, I would like to note that there was never an IP contract signed with this company since their primary business is not software development.
Thank you for your inputs and advice.
