A former Google contractor is suing the company for allegedly stealing from him the idea for the Sky layer in Google Earth.

The lawsuit filed this week in federal district court in Atlanta seeks punitive damages of $25 million from Google.

This is the second lawsuit I've read about Google "stealing" ideas.

This happens all the time, someone comes with a new idea he doesn't use it and some big company takes the idea, I don't thing he will get $25 million from Google

Not a chance will he get anything, if he does i will iron my own sack !

Woc

Originally Posted by usearchme

Not a chance will he get anything, if he does i will iron my own sack !

Woc

Ouch!

A former Google contractor is suing the company for allegedly stealing from him the idea for the Sky layer in Google Earth.

1. Does that contractor have a job chasing ambulances?
2. Having a "sky" in a product called "Earth" is patently obvious.
3. If he used to work for Google when he came up with the idea, they didn't steal it from him, they paid him for it. Heck, I'd love to slip on the floor or whatever to raise my salary, but I'll just go about it the honest way.

Originally Posted by Learning Newbie

1. Does that contractor have a job chasing ambulances?
2. Having a "sky" in a product called "Earth" is patently obvious.
3. If he used to work for Google when he came up with the idea, they didn't steal it from him, they paid him for it. Heck, I'd love to slip on the floor or whatever to raise my salary, but I'll just go about it the honest way.

Did the former employee leave before they added sky? There is a lot we don't know.

yah! it also happen in real life "not over the web" . . .if the idea is good someone steal it.

Originally Posted by kline11

Did the former employee leave before they added sky? There is a lot we don't know.

If they paid him for his work, possibly including features to be added, it doesn't matter when Google implemented his suggestions.

I just came up with a way to update a record in a database if it exists, but create it if it doesn't. I invented it because I had to, for a task given to me by my employer. The company owns this code. They can continue reusing my idea after I move on, because it's their intellectual property. They bought it from me with my salary - I sell 8 hours a day of my time to my employer. So did the contractor with Google.

You're right there's a lot we don't know. But we do know that essentially some old lady dumped hot coffee in her lap, and now she's sueing McDonalds for millions. As described, this guy and his case don't have a leg to stand on. This is the kind of frivolous lawsuit where a lot of people think the contractor should be forced to pay Google's legal fees, after he looses his suit.

I always have a problem with this stealing ideas stuff. Besides what John listed...
Did this guy actually DO anything?
There are billions of ideas out there but, they have no value unless put into action. I used to hold bags of chips closed with a clothes pin. Now, there is a commercial product called the chip-clip that is the exact same thing. Do they owe me anything? No, I did nothing with the idea. They prototyped, started manufacturing, and marketing. They spent time and risked money to do something with the idea.

So waht if this kid came up with the idea (besides that as a contractor, google does own it). Did he do anything with it? Did he risk his own money developing it? What about harm? Was he harmed because google developed it? Did he lose money because of google's work? No, because he never created a product that google's competes with.

Originally Posted by willcode4beer

I always have a problem with this stealing ideas stuff. Besides what John listed...
Did this guy actually DO anything?
There are billions of ideas out there but, they have no value unless put into action. I used to hold bags of chips closed with a clothes pin. Now, there is a commercial product called the chip-clip that is the exact same thing. Do they owe me anything? No, I did nothing with the idea. They prototyped, started manufacturing, and marketing. They spent time and risked money to do something with the idea.

So waht if this kid came up with the idea (besides that as a contractor, google does own it). Did he do anything with it? Did he risk his own money developing it? What about harm? Was he harmed because google developed it? Did he lose money because of google's work? No, because he never created a product that google's competes with.

Did you work for and share your idea with the company that created the "chip-clip"?

no, i didn't

Originally Posted by willcode4beer

no, i didn't

Well he did. So does he deserve compinsation? Maybe, or maybe not. What exactly were the circumstances? I certainly don't know, but I'm interested to see what happens.

Originally Posted by kline11

Well he did. So does he deserve compinsation? Maybe, or maybe not. What exactly were the circumstances? I certainly don't know, but I'm interested to see what happens.

So what's the name of this lawsuit? Such and such v Google, but who's the such and such? Nevermind, here's from news.com which is owned by Cnet.com

The lawsuit filed this week in federal district court in Atlanta seeks punitive damages of $25 million from Google.


Jonathan Cobb claims in his suit that he disclosed the idea for a Google Sky idea in internal e-mail discussion groups when he worked at Google as a contractor beginning in 2006.


The Google Earth Sky layer, when it launched in August 2007, was similar in interface and functionality to what he had conceptualized, Cobb claims.
Google representatives did not return e-mails seeking comment.
The case may not be as straightforward as it sounds, says one Internet law expert.


"These types of misappropriation claims are easy to make and hard to disprove," says Eric Goldman, an assistant professor at Santa Clara University School of Law. "It's not entirely clear that Cobb wins even if everything he says is true."

From techspot.com

Jonathan Cobb has filed a suit against Google demanding damages of $25 million for their supposed transgressions. While he isn't claiming Google stole code from him, he asserts that the 'idea' he laid out was his and his alone. True or not, he seems to be facing an uphill battle. An idea alone does not make a lawsuit with most cases of this nature usually having a patent at their core. This one does not, leading me to believe that Google will probably win out.

So wait...if you voice an idea within a company, it's used, and you no longer work there, you can sue?

****, some of my former employees and clients owe me millions.

what he could possibly do about the stealing? i bet, he is not going to get anything or proof anything.

Where did you find that?

Working in the software development world, that doesn't sound like 'theft' or 'stealing' to me. People talk about ideas all the time. Somebody had an idea for relational databases, and now we've got mysql, postgres, sql server, access, oracle, db2 ... they're all basically the same concept at heart, but vastly different implementations.

Without lots of code being borrowed and without the guy having patented a way of doing something useful ... the idea of a giant corporation stealing from and squashing the little guy just doesn't fit. When I suggest a way to improve a product, to a person who's paying me, it's understood they should go use the idea I'm telling them. Otherwise, I'd keep it a secret and do it myself.

Like any company, Google isn't perfect. The interests of their shareholders are more important than the interests of their customers or the broader community, that's how business works. But in this lawsuit, it doesn't sound like Google has done anything illegal or unethical.

Originally Posted by kline11

Well he did. So does he deserve compinsation?

He received compensation. It was called a paycheck

This one goes straight to my blog !