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Looks like the court didn't uphold any of Sebastian Marineau-Mes' points, from what I can tell.
Ontario Superior Court Finds Executive Resigned From BlackBerry Ltd. In Violation Of His Employment Contract - Employment and HR - Canada
Prior Crackberry article:
Apple hires away BlackBerry's top software VP, litigation delays the inevitable by a few months | CrackBerry.com
Nice to see justice prevailing :)
Thanks for the update!
Posted via CB10
I guess he has to sit at home until June. Take a vacation or something. Hopefully he doesn't have access to the source control at BlackBerry anymore.
? CB10 ?
And there's the crux of it, it's very unlikely he'll contribute anything positive to blackberry in the ensuing 4 months. So, although clearly the contract was legally enforceable, in practice enforcing it gained very little.
In my experience I've found most companies to be amiable in such matters (as long as you don't leave them high and dry), preferring a friendly separation rather than bitterness, bad press and damaged employee relations.
I personally vacated a 6 month notice period 3 months early and a few years later returned to the company as a consultant because we had maintained a good relationship.
The overall issue is that he is leaving with working knowledge of current projects and upcoming projects to a competitor. I agree with BB in this regard, enforces their contract that was signed and reviewed by both him and his lawyer. Enforcing this keeps BB intellectual property out of the hands of the competitor.
I just love good news!
Posted via Verizon Z10 - OS v10.1.2.2174
You've got to keep up your end of the deal. He shouldn't have signed the contract If he wasn't willing to do what it says. I can't believe he actually thought he'd be able to get away with it and I'm glad BB didn't let him.
In the UK it's common to negotiate early release of your termination period, maybe in France too. Be interesting to see if they have a problem getting new recruits to sign up to a 6 months notice period. Many will see this as a very restrictive clause.
Btw I'm not convinced on the accuracy of the title of this thread. Is there any evidence that Apple approached marineau to poach him from BlackBerry?
Nothing can stop this guy from sharing anything. BB now has to pay this guy, full Salary for a few more months, then he can go share his secrets with Apple. Ridiculous.
This was a waste of time, the end result is the same, either way.
This has been stated before. Basically he will not be working for 6 months. He won't have anything to do with BlackBerry. It's a non compete Claus. After 6 months there is no telling what has changed in BlackBerry's road map and what ideas they have come up with for BlackBerry 10. So all he has is whatever they had talked about prior to him leaving.
Posted via CB10
I don't recall any of the legal judgement referring to a non compete clause. Blackberry seemed to argue it was a breach of a simple 6 month termination clause. Whether him going to Apple was a significant factor or not we'll never know.
OF COURSE it is a significant factor - how on earth could you think otherwise?
Marineau-Mes was one of the central components of BlackBerry management, having all sorts of access to deep strategic initiatives about the product architecture and so on, and responsible for much of QNX's strategic direction. Going to a DIRECT competitor like Apple OF COURSE has competitive and strategic implications, especially at a time when Apple is further encroaching on not just BlackBerry's traditional handset business, but QNX's embedded/automotive business as well. SMH.
I'm thinking very few would ever see a clause like this in their contract though except for someone at his level. In that case, it's usually pretty common anyway because of the damage them leaving can cause. The reverse of this is usually a lengthy termination payout because of the length of time it would take them to find comparable employment.
I know of a former VP that was paid for two years upon "quitting" in an old company.
What's preventing him from doing so all now? He could be talking to people, working from home, having meetings with people. Could be sharing a lot. Is he being bugged/tracked/spied on? How would they know what he's doing?
Posted via CB10