Pilot Sues Delta For $1 Billion Over Trade-Secrets Theft

Would you want this pilot to continue flying knowing his spiteful ness towards the airline ?

He's right to go for as much as possible if it really was his. I've lost count of the times my employer have stolen my ideas then passed them off as their own wrapped up in another cover.

I was thinking the same thing. It's like removing a cop from duty while they're under investigation. The union contract should automatically remove him from duty while this lawsuit is active. Hell no I don't want a pilot on my flight while he's suing his employer.

Intellectual Property claims are very expensive and difficult to litigate and win as a plaintiff -- been there and done that. We had a unique service that was sold to multiple fortune 500 companies. We had a good contract and confidentiality/NDA terms. Our product was so good the industry association decided to create a knock off version. It took 5 years and an enormous amount of money to eventually win. But the defendants spent $10M in legal fees trying to grind our small business into a bloody pulp. Corporations will spare no expense in such a matter. They just add the expenses to their consumer's cost and it is deducted as a business expense. Note that such disputes almost never argued for the plaintiff on a contingency basis; you have to write a check for you counsel each month, for years.

The barriers to file such a lawsuit are very high and it simply wouldn't get filed if it had no merit. Make no mistake about it, the legal system is highly deferential to megacorpations and their $800/hour lawyers and hold individuals and small business with disdain.

I billion doesn’t seem that far off given that WhatsApp was sold for 19 billion years ago and this is probably used by a significant amount of employees. We need DL employees to chime in

Not a lawyer, but in the United States, most employers are entitled to [the benefits from] all work products you have developed at their direction or on company time. Unless you have developed a novel idea, 100% on your own time, unrelated to your work duties, your idea belongs to your company/employer. That's an over-generalization, of course, and it may vary according to your state and any employment agreements made when you were hired. However, if your company received a patent on the idea, you should have been included/credited on the application. You could/should speak to an attorney if you have a strong case.

I would be very concerned to travel on a Delta plane if this guy is the pilot.

As a retired captain for a major US airline (not Delta) I wouldn't want to fly with this guy - he's wound up like a golf ball. Most pilots love their chosen occupation and aren't trying to be billionaires by filing lawsuits against their own company. I pity his copilots.

Unless this guy has something firm like a parent it'll be tough to prove Delta stole anything, not to mention proving Delta wasn't already developing a similar product at the pitch time. If his claims are true it sounds like he didn't do enough to protect himself

Another question is whether the pilot signed an employment agreement with Delta that includes an assignment of intellectual property rights from the employee to the employer. That’s quite standard procedure.

Calvin Klein did the same thing to Kramer with "The Beach" cologne. There's no justice.

Based on what was written, this pilot, on an unsolicited basis, told his boss what he thought would be a good idea and then went so far as to provide mockups. It isn't his job to develop software and he wasn't asked to do so.
The pilot's error was in taking his idea to someone else but esp. his employer without properly protecting his idea including by beginning development of the app and properly documenting what it would do. All he was basically doing is creating a group SMS app that would allow members to be added and deleted based on crew member rotations. It isn't a complex idea and the GUI could be configured in any number of ways which would make it unique enough.

As someone who thought I had an "idea" and did a patent search only to find that what I "invented" was patented in Europe which means the US would not provide a patent even though the product was not sold here, it is rare for someone to really develop something that is totally earth shattering and new.

Hope he gets over it but I would bet that he has plenty of eyes watching him.

A very surprising case. It's not as if "his" proposal was unique or a first - other airlines have been building almost identical apps to co-ordinate aircraft departure activities for at least the last decade that I'm aware of.

Internal messaging apps are $0.10/dozen. There's no obvious discussion of lots of important details here, but I'm betting that many of those details are not in this pilot's favor and I feel pretty certain that I wouldn't want to fly with this pilot anytime soon...

No worries flying with this pilot until he loses the case. Remember he thinks he has $1B to come home to.

Ben, Very similar to this Delta case.
Robert Kearns won one of the best known patent infringement cases against Ford Motor Company (1978–1990) and a case against Chrysler Corporation (1982–1992), invented the most common intermittent windshield wiper systems used on most automobiles from 1969 to the present.
The "Big Three" auto makers (General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler) rejected his proposal, yet began to install electronic intermittent wipers based on Kearns's design in their cars, beginning in 1969.

The lawsuit against the Ford Motor Company was opened in 1978 and ended in 1990. Kearns sought $395 million in damages, but was awarded $10.2 million. Chrysler was ordered to pay Kearns US$18.7 million with interest.[

I know how Delta works I was employed from the late 60’s to the early 70’s and developed a way increase convention business and company meetings. They pulled the plug on me after I laid out the whole concept and the I was dismissed. Great working for you Delta.

I don't know anything more about this case that what is in this article. However, I can believe an IT department for a major company would do something like this.

My guess is Delta IT outsourced the job of coding the app and the specifications had all the functionality of the one the Captain designed as well as a few more features with a "corporate flavor" so they claim it is a new design. #JustMyGuess