Raising the Bar Blog - Robin, who owns my LinkedIn connections if I leave my firm? - Comments http://www.theraisingthebarblog.com/ Robin Hensley : Lawyer & Law Firm Business Development Coach en Copyright 2012 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 11:18:12 -0500 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 11:18:12 -0500 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/?v=4.32-en http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Jerry Carlton Check out this article about a LinkedIn lawsuit at:
http://www.tkfpc.com
Regarding: TEKsystems Inc. v. Hammernick et al., case number 0:10-cv-00819, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota.

]]> http://www.theraisingthebarblog.com/robin-who-owns-my-linkedin-connections-if-i-leave-my-firm/#18143 http://www.theraisingthebarblog.com/robin-who-owns-my-linkedin-connections-if-i-leave-my-firm/#18143 Business DevelopmentSocial Networking Tue, 03 Aug 2010 08:45:00 -0500 Robin Hensley Robert Scott Lawrence My initial reaction is that, while the names and contact information of all the firm's clients (including ones I bring in) properly belong to the firm, my private address book -- which includes friends, family, acquaintances, and business contacts -- is nobody's business but my own, and doesn't belong to the firm any more than the thoughts in my head do. Simply posting those contacts online does not grant my firm any kind of proprietary rights in that information. I'd love to see the lawsuit in the U.S. where a company tries to assert ownership rights in professional relationships made during the course of your employment. While they may have a right to inventions you create while employed by them (even, sometimes, when you're not at work), I can see no justification -- and a mountain of privacy concerns -- over any company attempting to gain access to contact information for everyone you know. That, of course, will not stop an aggressive lawyer somewhere from inserting a clause to that effect in an employment contract. And then I guess we'll get to see what the U.S. courts think about it. In light of current federal concerns over the privacy of personal data (e.g., Facebook issues), I have trouble seeing the courts simply rolling over on the issue.

]]> http://www.theraisingthebarblog.com/robin-who-owns-my-linkedin-connections-if-i-leave-my-firm/#18147 http://www.theraisingthebarblog.com/robin-who-owns-my-linkedin-connections-if-i-leave-my-firm/#18147 Business DevelopmentSocial Networking Tue, 03 Aug 2010 08:45:00 -0500 Robin Hensley Dave If I left a company and took a copy of it's contact database with me on a USB drive that would be classed as theft of the companies intellectual property and almost certainly be breach of contract.

Why then is pulling together a list of those same contacts, who I meet in my role as a company representative, suddenly deemed to be my personal contacts and ok to take them.

If I am happy to take a salary whilst collating those contacts at trade shows or seminars paid for by the company, I have to accept I am doing so on behalf of the company. You can't have it both ways.

]]> http://www.theraisingthebarblog.com/robin-who-owns-my-linkedin-connections-if-i-leave-my-firm/#19008 http://www.theraisingthebarblog.com/robin-who-owns-my-linkedin-connections-if-i-leave-my-firm/#19008 Business DevelopmentSocial Networking Tue, 03 Aug 2010 08:45:00 -0500 Robin Hensley