Today's employees are commonly using LinkedIn for sales or marketing purposes of their employers. They are building networks of important business contacts linked to their personal profiles or discussion groups. When they leave their current employer, they can take these networks with them and use them to promote a competing business. Or can't they? This question has recently been addressed by the high court in the UK and ended up in favor of the employer. According to The Guardian, thiswas the first case for a UK court to deal with the ownership of contacts on a social network.
The case of Whitmar Publications Limited versus Gamage was brought before the court in July 2013. The Whitmar company sued its former employees who had used contacts acquired via the company's discussion group on LinkedIn to promote a newly established competing business. One of these former employees was responsible for establishing and maintaining the discussion group in his former job. The court issued a preliminary injunction prohibiting the former employees from using the contacts. The reason was a misuse of "confidential information".
The case has shown that an ex-employee is in a strong position only if his LinkedIn contacts are attached to his private profile and he had not been responsible for managing his former employer's discussion group. If the ex-employee obtained his LinkedIn contacts, or their e-mails and phone numbers, based on his work for his former employer, the employer is at an advantage. The employer is, therefore, most likely to win even in the Whitmar versus Gamage case.
A clear legislation for such cases does not exist yet, but it is probable that the number of such cases will increase. For both employers and employees it is a signal that they should pay more attention to corporate rules for the use of social networks.
What is your opinion from the perspective of an employer and a LinkedIn user? Who should own the professional contacts on LinkedIn?
-kk-