As an engineer, all I have to make a living with are ideas and knowledge. Take away my ability to use those things and I am not an engineer.
Ford lays claim to all my ideas and all my knowledge such that if I try to make a living from those things, they say they own whatever comes from them.
Ford wants me to go away quietly and slouch into poverty.
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So sue them!!!! Let me know how far you get
“ Ford owns everything in your head even after they fire you, as I recall. Or they claim to. “Intellectual property”. ”… into Perpetuity. That is correct, you sold your soul when you signed on. Now you are an empty shell with nothing original or proprietary left.
There are four document classifications: secrete, confidential, proprietary, and none of above. All secrete, confidential and proprietary documents also need to be properly stamped/declared. They have individual retention periods, not forever. The "non-of-above" is what you can use to tell a story in a party. No organization is known to track how many documents exist, who are the authors, and if they are properly classified.
Secrete and confidential documents must have access control and must be encrypted when they are sent through email. So, it is theoretically not difficult to find out who has the possession of these documents if you know these documents exist. No organization is known to track who has the controlled documents.
Since the documents are access controlled. For people who do not have the access, there is no way for individual to know what classification of the exact information involved.
You know how "Ford owns everything" is going. Extensive non-compete typically failed in the court room. This is especially true when it is a public information that your skills are not what the company needs. The best way to own good ideas that have competitor advantages is to keep the sources of the good ideas away from the competitors, not making the sources becoming competitors. Therefore the ideas that one would let go by definition are bad ideas. How can one be liable for giving company's competitor bad ideas to work on?
@OP legal precedence shows most non-compete are not enforceable / illegal. Apply the p-rn rule you know it when you see it.
Walk through the logic. Ford hires an experienced engineer who has all the requisite skills. Now Ford hired that person because of their knowledge and experience and Ford wants that person to use those previously acquired skills and knowledge to benefit Ford. When that person leaves Ford they cannot now claim that their skills and knowledge can’t be used at their next employer. Of course apply some common sense you can’t download / steal work products.
My spouse’s departure paper had a bunch of wide reaching statements about knowledge and skills belonging to Ford. All lawyer word-vomit.
Just because they claim ownership over all future ideas & inventions or other IP whatsoever it doesn't mean there is any legal standing to it. They would likely have a very difficult time asserting any claim over IP created after terminating the working relationship Without any "valuable considerations" there isn't a legally binding contract to give them standing over your ideas. Even while employed, anything not directly related to the work you performed, or things you were exposed to, would be subject in the first place. Once you find other working and continue to pursue engineering how can it be established that any new ideas & inventions made there are owned by someone else and were only conceivable due to the resources provided by Ford? Do you think any jury would actually side with Ford in any case where it wasn't clear that you conceived and worked on an innovation while in their employ?
Don't be push-over, practice your skill-set best you can going forward and enjoy the "best revenge" which is moving forward to live a happy & successful life.
Ford owns everything in your head even after they fire you, as I recall. Or they claim to. “Intellectual property”.
I don’t know for how long.
And I don’t know how that works if you get a job with another company.
And what would be the difference between working for another company that now gets your ideas compared to going into business on your own with your ideas?
There is no non-compete/non-disclosure agreement in a typical lower/mid-level employment.