NSW Deliberately misleading job interview and intellectual property

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9 March 2018
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I contacted a company that run fantasy sports in March 2017. My initial approach was to the HR Manager expressing my interest in joining their company in full employment. My email was responded to informing me it would be passed on to the GM and saying "it would be great for you two to catch up for a coffee at some stage". This began a series of email and phone correspondence leading to a meeting - throughout all of this I was of the genuine belief that the purpose was consideration for employment. In this actual meeting I discussed and elaborated on my ideas, visions and own specialised sports stats spreadsheet. Towards the end of this meeting it became clear that there was no job and they weren't interested in employing me - but just wanted my ideas. They have since commenced implementing those ideas. Do I have any form of Intellectual Property claim here?
 

Leonard Mancini

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4 August 2016
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Hi Adrian, Did you get them to sign an NDA? I suspect not. That means that a Court would have to imply an agreement to keep information provided in the meeting confidential.

Would a court imply such a term? Im not aware of any decisions in the context of a job interview where an applicant's own information was regarded as confidential. Its not impossible and there may well be decisions out there that could be helpful but I am not aware of them.
 

Rod

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27 May 2014
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See an equity and trusts lawyer rather than IP.

You ideally have evidence of your ideas that pre-date your meeting.