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Comment by cole-k

5 years ago

Second-hand source here, but I’m pretty sure Riju postdates the author’s internship.

IANAL but if he signed a non-compete maybe this could be a legal issue.

15 comments

cole-k

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daniel-thompson  5 years ago

Replit is based in SF, and non-competes aren't enforceable in California.

  • Jhsto  5 years ago

    All YC companies are legally based in Delaware. Though if the work is done in California, I do not know if the Delaware laws are enforceable, even if the case is settled in Delaware.

    • jahewson  5 years ago

      Employment contracts with employees based in California are executed under California law. Companies have indeed tried to force employees into contracts that specify Delaware as the applicable law but thankfully Delaware courts have thrown these clauses out as invalid.

      1 reply →

  • Thaxll  5 years ago

    I'm pretty sure you can't leave a compagny and create a similar project copy pasting the same design / idea that you knew while working in the previous compagny.

    • daniel-thompson  5 years ago

      If any of the following are true, you can:

      - The company's version is not sufficiently original. IANAL but there are many sites that do something similar to replit, as shown in the blog post.

      - Your version is sufficiently limited that it falls under fair use, or sufficiently minimal that it falls under the "de minimus" exception*. The guy made his project by himself in 4 days, and explicitly mentions that it does not have, and he has no intention of adding, the features it would need to compete in the marketplace with replit.

      * https://www.jgschwartzlawblog.com/the-de-minimis-copyright-e...

    • paxys  5 years ago

      You cannot copy the actual source code.

      Designs may or may not be covered by copyright depending on how specific they are.

      There is no protection on ideas.

      You can most definitely leave a company and start a competitor doing exactly what you were doing in your previous role. California laws specifically encourage that, and that is the main reason why Silicon Valley exists.

    • teraflop  5 years ago

      I'm really curious what makes you so confident about this.

      If nothing else, your conflation of "design" and "idea" doesn't make much sense, because the two are treated vastly differently by the legal system.

    • Dma54rhs  5 years ago

      Maybe in idealistic world but almost every successful tech company is a blatant "stealing of ideas", thinking otherwise is naive snd won't bring you far.