50,000 Reasons for Employees to Think Twice Before Taking Their Employer’s Copyright Works and Confidential Information

Lisa Egan and Caroline Judd of K&L Gates LLP write:

Federal Court of Australia Decision in Leica Geosystems Pty Ltd v Koudstaal (No 3) [2014] FCA 1129

An ex-employee was recently ordered to pay his former employer AUD50,000 in damages after the Federal Court (Court) held that the employee had infringed copyright and breached his employment agreement and duty of confidentiality and acted in breach of the Corporations Act 2001. What did he do? When he left employment he took a little too much with him, in the form of source code and electronic files.