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Google accused of racketeering in lawsuit

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Re: Google accused of racketeering in lawsuit

#11

Post by rdtsc »

alehul wrote: post #2

> Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but a judge in the case noted last year that the firm has argued that Attia gave Google rights to his technology “without a condition of later payment.” So Google's defense isn't even that the substance of the accusations are false, but that they had the legal ability to do so? Is this common behavior for Google, if the story is true? This may be naive, b…

> Is this common behavior for Google, if the story is true?

It depends on details of his contract. It's quite plausible his employment contract in "Project X" did say that he would transfer knowledge and ideas in exchange for money. It's pretty standard stuff.

In other words, it might not be exactly a slam dunk case. A racketeering charge seems pretty outrageous as well.

However if Google did these things (which looks like they did), it would make them look shady. Maybe legally in the clear but ethically like you said, it would seem they threw their reputation under the bus.

Maybe once companies are a certain size they think they are untouchable and say stuff like "Yeah this is shady, but we've got lawyers and PR people to handle this, no biggie"

And this is why maybe a charge like racketeering is nice move - it might not be winnable in court, but it is outrageous enough to damage Google's reputation. Had it been some mundane case over a minor legal term, we wouldn't have found out.

Re: Google accused of racketeering in lawsuit

#12

Post by gamesbrainiac »

In simple terms, google baited people with good ideas to join google x labs. Then pursued to cancel the projects, and thus cutting out the people who originated these ideas. Finally, google went on to use these ideas to create their own technology, and some have even graduated from Google X Labs.

Basically, evil incubation.

Re: Google accused of racketeering in lawsuit

#13

Post by alehul »

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #6
QAPereo wrote: post #4

That’s pretty much unequivocally evil, right? Seriously though, if this guy has a real case, Google is going to have a truly miserable time in court.

It depends. The article suggests the plaintiff may not have properly protected his intellectual property ahead of time. It may be very hard to get a court to side against Google if what Google did was technically legal. Evil and illegal are two different things, and sadly, they quite often do not align.

IANAL, but: Is that the reason behind the racketeering charge?

They've developed a method of systematic theft of IP, which, though technically legal as an isolated incident, shows malicious intent when strung together.

Is that enough to satisfy the charge, or are they still protected?

Re: Google accused of racketeering in lawsuit

#14

Post by phkahler »

alehul wrote: post #2

> Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but a judge in the case noted last year that the firm has argued that Attia gave Google rights to his technology “without a condition of later payment.” So Google's defense isn't even that the substance of the accusations are false, but that they had the legal ability to do so? Is this common behavior for Google, if the story is true? This may be naive, b…

>> So Google's defense isn't even that the substance of the accusations are false, but that they had the legal ability to do so?

But they were under NDA not to disclose the ideas, and yet they started a company marketing a product based on those ideas. If this is a correct interpretation, they don't have the legal ability to do so.

Of course the wording of the NDA is everything in a case like this. I'm assuming Google wrote the NDA when this guy should have provided one for Google to sign.

Re: Google accused of racketeering in lawsuit

#15

Post by ktta »

thinkloop wrote: post #10

This made me question my understanding of NDAs - are they supposed to restrict usage by the party you told the secret to, or only that they can't share with others?

Depends on how good your lawyer is. There's no cookie-cutter NDA from Party A to Party B with fixed roles.

Re: Google accused of racketeering in lawsuit

#16

Post by greglindahl »

phkahler wrote: post #14
alehul wrote: post #2

> Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but a judge in the case noted last year that the firm has argued that Attia gave Google rights to his technology “without a condition of later payment.” So Google's defense isn't even that the substance of the accusations are false, but that they had the legal ability to do so? Is this common behavior for Google, if the story is true? This may be naive, b…

>> So Google's defense isn't even that the substance of the accusations are false, but that they had the legal ability to do so? But they were under NDA not to disclose the ideas, and yet they started a company marketing a product based on those ideas. If this is a correct interpretation, they don't have the legal ability to do so. Of course the wording of the NDA is everything in a case like this. I'm assuming Googl…

How many of your NDAs have you gotten huge silicon valley companies to sign? If you're a little guy, that never happens.

Re: Google accused of racketeering in lawsuit

#18

Post by greydata »

So the contention is that Google stole his idea for building design software? His representation is a bunch of patent trolls and the suit has already been going on for 3 years. The only news is now they are contending that many major Google products are based on coordinated and systematic IP theft (Search, Ads, Maps, Wallet, Hangouts, Youtube, Android). Pretty sure this is entirely bullshit.

Actual lawsuit: http://digitalcommons.law.scu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?articl...

Re: Google accused of racketeering in lawsuit

#19

Post by IBM »

alehul wrote: post #2

> Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but a judge in the case noted last year that the firm has argued that Attia gave Google rights to his technology “without a condition of later payment.” So Google's defense isn't even that the substance of the accusations are false, but that they had the legal ability to do so? Is this common behavior for Google, if the story is true? This may be naive, b…

Before Uber became Public Enemy #1 and prior to the Otto/Levandowski dispute, Google was planning on competing with Uber despite being an investor, which led Kalanick to e-mail David Drummond about it [1]. Drummond eventually left Uber's board (which harkens back to Schmidt leaving Apple's board) but this was well after the relationship had been deteriorating.

[1] http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/595ea97dd9fccd31008...

Re: Google accused of racketeering in lawsuit

#20

Post by 0xbear »

thinkloop wrote: post #10

This made me question my understanding of NDAs - are they supposed to restrict usage by the party you told the secret to, or only that they can't share with others?

Cookie-cutter NDAs are nearly always very one-sided. Some of the NDAs our company signs with other companies take weeks of lawyers bickering about things that to the uninitiated seem like useless bullshit. But the fact that those things are there in the initial version, and that the lawyers of the other company start out by saying there's no way they will be removed, and then after weeks of bickering agree to the changes should tell you something.
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