After a 25-year career as a computer engineer at Apple you decide to retire and start your
Question:
After a 25-year career as a computer engineer at Apple you decide to retire and start your own business developing apps for US tourists travelling worldwide. You decide to start the business with your friend Amanda Anderson, herself a skilled computer engineer holding several innovative patents you want to exploit together. You start operations using your savings (about 100,000 USD each) and launch a first round of financing to raise 3 million USD from investors. In the meanwhile, your company, based in Oceanside, California, successfully launches its first app. Apple (seated at Cupertino, California) sues you affirming that you developed your app while still working for them and that, under your employment contract at the time, the intellectual property on any of your works belongs to Apple. The value of the case is 5 million USD.
Questions
1. Please evaluate your conduct under the business ethics principles
2. Based on the facts outlined above, is Apple suing you for breach of contract or tort? How would your answer to this question change if the allegation was that you actually stole the designs from some of your former colleagues' computers to fraudulently use them for your app?
3. Before Apple's legal action, you had entered a distribution agreement with a major tourism website which involved a 1M USD investment from your company. Would you be able to get out of the contract claiming that you made a mistake in assessing the value of the website's enhancement to your business? Why?
4. Once the "legal storm" quiets down (and assuming your company survives it) you intend to hire a number of skilled computer engineers. Would you hire them as employer or independent contractors? What would you do to make sure that you correctly classify them according to your plans?
5. Based on the facts in the hypothetical, what legal form would you prefer for your business with Amanda and why?