As I recall, the "wiggle room" verbiage in there is to insure that the NDA is valid. There should not be any confusion that it only covers information received via the non-disclosure process, and not obtained by other means.
Slightly related: I'm reminded of when Harman hired a guy who had seen a job posting and had dreamt of working for them (he was disabused of how great that was going to be in time). The day he arrived for work a giant bunch of paperwork from his former employer arrived as well, and Harman was being sued. It turned out that Tom Jacoby, Sid's then son-in-law, had entered into a secret agreement with the company not to ever raid it of key employees. In this case it wasn't a solicitation but an entirely autonomous action on the part of the new hire. But the lawsuit proceeded.
In one of the court sessions attorneys for the plaintiff argued that they had valuable IP that was now to be severely compromised were this man to continue in his new position. They cited a few things, including Cooper-Bauck virtualization, known at Harman as Vmax (for Virtual Multi-Axis).
Their gusto diminished when defense pointed out that Vmax was licensed to them by Harman.
In one of the court sessions attorneys for the plaintiff argued that they had valuable IP that was now to be severely compromised were this man to continue in his new position. They cited a few things, including Cooper-Bauck virtualization, known at Harman as Vmax (for Virtual Multi-Axis).
Their gusto diminished when defense pointed out that Vmax was licensed to them by Harman.
Oh, another 'war story' about Harmon Kardon. I think that many here have worked for them at one time or another. I am amazed that they have been as successful as they have been, over the many decades. I worked as a consultant for them (and JBL) in 1977-1978. It was 'hell' to get a proper working contract with them, but I did, finally. The mid management was a unique experience.
Some good people at times, but I share your surprise that they have been successful---at least by some measures. A certain amount of predatory business practices didn't hurt.
When Harman Multimedia was trying to get some business with NEC iirc, at one point Packard-Bell computers ended up acquiring the NEC personal computer business. So Harman had to talk to those folks, who were already notorious. When I spoke to Rich May about this, he said in his gravelly voice (a smoker since the age of twelve) "Harman will have finally met their match".
I think that's because Harman Inernational typically purchased only well profiled and generally successful companies, such as Studer/Revox, Becker in Germany (which was highly regarded), legends like JBL and Infinity, Madrigal and Levinson, Lecson, AKG of Austria, Uher of Germany, etc. And they tended to sort of round off their flock, so they bought Audax who made drivers for their loudspeaker brands, yet were merciless to shut anbody and everybody who faltered down.
In the state of california, they are not legal. Especially, the agreements which say you cannot compete after employment.
-RNM
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The Audax angle: many years ago a HR person inveigled the State of Calif. out of about a mil and a half to listen to gurus about QA and stuff. with the back story that we fortunate ones would be more viable in the job market when and if we had to seek new jobs.
One session was the then-chief corporate counsel and another corporate insider, and the former gave a fascinating talk on the history of HIII and with particular emphasis on the incredibly lightly-capitalized endeavors.
But to the point, he went into the story of the acquisition of Audax. The French government actually paid Harman as part of the deal, a good deal of money.
So things began to go wrong when the guy they had in mind to lead the newly acquired company had a coronary iirc.
They found someone else, and began to get acquainted with operations and documentation. At one point they realized that there were no records of the inventory. At all.
So they said to the representative, So tomorrow we won't build loudspeaker drivers, we will count parts.
The rep said Oh no, sorry Monsieur. The union will not allow that.
Meredith went on to say that the labor union had things under complete control. Despite Harman believing that they were the best managers in the world, things were intractable.
One session was the then-chief corporate counsel and another corporate insider, and the former gave a fascinating talk on the history of HIII and with particular emphasis on the incredibly lightly-capitalized endeavors.
But to the point, he went into the story of the acquisition of Audax. The French government actually paid Harman as part of the deal, a good deal of money.
So things began to go wrong when the guy they had in mind to lead the newly acquired company had a coronary iirc.
They found someone else, and began to get acquainted with operations and documentation. At one point they realized that there were no records of the inventory. At all.
So they said to the representative, So tomorrow we won't build loudspeaker drivers, we will count parts.
The rep said Oh no, sorry Monsieur. The union will not allow that.
Meredith went on to say that the labor union had things under complete control. Despite Harman believing that they were the best managers in the world, things were intractable.
Aw, c'mon Brad, be a sport, share some gossip. I am interested personally, given that I am powered by Harman, my wife will fight before giving up her Harman integrated amp (model 680, from 19999 and the extraordinary speakers my friend developed with some help from me are entirely based on Audax drivers. Also, her JBL Ti600 floorstanding speakers are also 100% powered by rebadged Audax speaker drivers. As are my son's locally made speakers, also powered by a Harman integrated amp (6500 from 1993).
Brad, I accidentally found out that Harman used Audax dome tweeters (titanium) at best from their middle range of drivers (max. €46 per piece), but never any drivers from their top of the range (mine cost €99 per piece). In other words, they were good at using midrange drivers, keeping USA made whopper drivers for JBL's highest price range only and for professional drivers.
No. Not on NDA.
Just from experience in signing non-competes to get the job but knew and told them so later that it wasnt worth the paper it was written on. That took a LOT of their leverage with me away. And they admitted they knew it wasnt any good legally - just wanted me more in thier mental control.
SY is correct though. It depends on the details. But usually an NDA covers what needs to be covered to protect the company. Again, it depends if you learned it before or during employment or learned form third party or is common knowledge in your field.
In particualar, you cannot prevent a person from using his expertise or field of study doing similar work for others.
THx-RNMarsh
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Looks like some employees will be looking for work if it goes thru. No need for duplication of work.
Who is buying whom? and for what reason? Bigger share of the market? Stock holders benefit only kind of deal? New patents to acquire?
-RNM
A quote from one article about it that I reposted on FB:
"While computing spreads, analog and mixed-signal chipmakers have been among the biggest targets in the industry consolidation. The cost and complexity of analog design and manufacturing has continued increasing in recent years, and companies are having trouble finding analog engineers in a sea of digital designers."
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