Going into direct competition with ex employer

[Dog^]

Hi everyone, I am new here.
Recently I walked out of a job after what I believe was unfair treatment and constructive dismissal. This is a seperate issue for which I am currently obtaining legal advice.
The job was sales related and on starting they had no system for the recording of customer interactions. I was initially a contractor and implemented a database recording system, which I had created for a previous client of mine, with modifications to help in my current sales role. It was verbally agreed that this database would remain my intelectual property but that the information therin would obviously be available to them.
I was there for more than a year and on numerous occasions asked them to sort me out a contract of employment. It was always promised Manyana but never materialised.
Now that I have left the company, I wish to stay in the the same line of business and to do so I will become a direct competitor. I wish to foster my direct relationships with the potential clients I have generated but have no intention of stealing my ex employers existing customer.
Can my ex employers hinder or restrict me with legal action.

Regards
Dog^

 

[MASSEY]

No all's fair.

For all anybody knows you just happend to stumble upon this new customer, and you never knew they were a customer of your previous employer.

You will get away with it.

 

[Wholesale-Suppliers]

No he can't this is what business is all about this all legal

 

[filtuh.com]

If there was no contract I'd suspect you're ok. You can always send them an invoice for the database system license after you left.

 

[kontracta_com]

I'd definitely run this past your lawyer first before you do anything Dog.

If they get wind of what your plans are then there is always the possibility that they will do something be it a 'try on' letter or something more formal; they may also take legal advice themselves.

For the sake of an extra few pounds in legal fees now, it could save a lot of worry in the longer term.

 

[Lorro2]

It is a dog eat dog world and ex employees will set up in business competing against ex employers and it happens all the time. It is often not pretty but thats life.

 

[JElder]

No contract!

There are some implied terms, but it would be VERY hard for them to actually do anything. The only thing they might be able to do was if you took anything (including data) with you that belonged to them.

If the customers are in your head, and you can show how you found them (looked them up in the phone book, etc) they would have a hard time.

 

[akirk]

you are clearly saying that you developed a database system (for which the IPR stays with you), but are then talking about pursuing their customers / i.e. their data.

the two things are separate - if you own the IPR to the database then you can set it up again empty and start to build your own contacts - but IPR ownership of software does not give you the right to own their data.

I would guess that if they knew you were doing it (and you have just admitted it on a public forum ) then they could potentially pursue you for theft...

Even without having had a contract various elements of law still apply...

Alasdair

 

[DaveSUK]

Some contracts of employment with either have a clause that you can not setup in direct competition for a period of time or that you can not approch their client base,

However as you have not had a contract then your free to setup and approach their client base.

Nearly all businesses will be setup that way. One will work for a company for example a catering company and will believe they can do it better, bigger or would simply like a little independence and go it alone.

I myself worked for a telecoms company before setting up my own. That company I worked for was setup on the principle of telling the customer as much bull sh** that you need to get a contract signed. When I found out the information we in the sale department where being told to give out was wrong me and two work mates left to setup our own in direct competition but without the bull sh**

We did have a clause saying we can not set up in competition for 12 months but we just had my wife as the director

 

[Dog^]

Many thanks for all the constructive replies.

"It was verbally agreed that this database would remain my intelectual property but that the information therin would obviously be available to them."

It was also said that any information held within the database would also remain mine. My obvious concern was due to this being a verbal agreement.
As already mentioned, I never had any contract of employment.


I think that all your comments were very helpful and I will stop worrying about my next actions.