While the non-competition agreement has been criticized on the grounds that it may infringe an ex-employee's working rights, the Taipei District Court does not quite agree.
In the case of CIS Technology Inc (亞瑟科技) versus Lin Yao-ching (林耀清), the court determined the ex-employee was liable for breaching the non-competition agreement, under which he is not allowed to go into business competing with his ex-employer after termination of his employment.
The agreement is a device widely applied in highly competitive industries to protect trade secrets.
Despite Lin's arguments the non-competition agreement is in breach of his constitutional right to work, the court ruled he must pay NT$130,000 to his ex-employer for violating the agreement he signed when he began his employment.
CIS Technology, a manufacturer of electronic, computer and communications products, claimed that Lin had used skills and information he had acquired during his service in the company to compete against it after his employment ended.
The dispute began last August when Lin quit the company and sent e-mails to the firm's customers telling them of his departure and future plans.
According to the court, Lin wrote in the e-mails that he would be developing products such as cable modems and ADSL modems for another company before starting a new job. He also asked for help with his plans and noted he would visit them soon.
When it obtained the e-mails, CIS Tech accused Lin of violating the non-competition obligations in his contract and requested he pay 24 months salary in damages -- NT$1,560,000.
Lin had argued he did not intend to do anything that competed with his ex-employer, but he wanted to make his departure from CIS known to the customers he had kept in contact.
He also cited the ROC Constitution in his defense, contending the non-competition agreement unfairly restricted his right to work.
The court decided the constitutional defense was not applicable, saying it related to contractual relationships in private law.
Unless the terms of the contract were excessively unreasonable, the court would normally recognize its legal force, the judge said.
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
The government is considering polices to increase rental subsidies for people living in social housing who get married and have children, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. During an interview with the Plain Law Movement (法律白話文) podcast, Cho said that housing prices cannot be brought down overnight without affecting banks and mortgages. Therefore, the government is focusing on providing more aid for young people by taking 3 to 5 percent of urban renewal projects and zone expropriations and using that land for social housing, he said. Single people living in social housing who get married and become parents could obtain 50 percent more
Democracies must remain united in the face of a shifting geopolitical landscape, former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told the Copenhagen Democracy Summit on Tuesday, while emphasizing the importance of Taiwan’s security to the world. “Taiwan’s security is essential to regional stability and to defending democratic values amid mounting authoritarianism,” Tsai said at the annual forum in the Danish capital. Noting a “new geopolitical landscape” in which global trade and security face “uncertainty and unpredictability,” Tsai said that democracies must remain united and be more committed to building up resilience together in the face of challenges. Resilience “allows us to absorb shocks, adapt under
RSS