Bimbo goes to court to keep secrets. Muffin thread.

[techs]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/07/business/07muffin.html?_r=1&ref=business

The company that owns the Thomas’ brand says that only seven people know how the muffins get their trademark tracery of air pockets — marketed as nooks and crannies — and it has gone to court to keep a tight lid on the secret.

After Bimbo bought Thomas’ in January 2009, Mr. Botticella became responsible for an English muffin factory in Placentia, Calif.

Last October, he accepted a job offer from Hostess to run its Eastern operations. The salary was $200,000 a year, $50,000 less than he was paid at Bimbo.

Bimbo obtained a federal court order barring the move, and late last month an appeals panel in Pennsylvania upheld the order.

 

[waggy]

hmm they shouldn't be allowed to keep a man from earning a living. so fuck em.

 

[Lifted]

hmm they shouldn't be allowed to keep a man from earning a living. so fuck em.

😕

 

[destrekor]

Not seeing anything really worthy of me giving two shits here.

It's fairly routine that positions with trade secrets typically cannot go to work for a competing company for at least a certain amount of time.

See: Intel/AMD, Coke/Pepsi, Microsoft/Apple/Google, etc etc etc.

Trade secrets can keep individuals from switching employers.

 

[Newbian]

That's why you kill them after they learn the secrets.

 

[Lifted]

It's fairly routine that positions with trade secrets typically cannot go to work for a competing company for at least a certain amount of time.

There was no such clause in his contract.

This isn't the issue anyway. The man was caught copying sensitive files to flash drives after being confronted with his plans to work for Hostess.

Let him rot in employment purgatory for all I care.

 

[Hacp]

Not seeing anything really worthy of me giving two shits here.

It's fairly routine that positions with trade secrets typically cannot go to work for a competing company for at least a certain amount of time.

See: Intel/AMD, Coke/Pepsi, Microsoft/Apple/Google, etc etc etc.

Trade secrets can keep individuals from switching employers.

Didn't a bunch of people that worked at palm jump ship to google/apple after the acquisition? How about Intel employees leaving for AMD in 2004 with the whole netburst fiasco? What about Nvidia hiring all the former transmeta employees for a future x86 cpu?

 

[slayer202]

come on, nooks and crannies is hardly some die hard secret. surely some other people know how to do it too...

 

[Ns1]

According to Bimbo’s filings, the secret of the nooks and crannies was split into several pieces to make it more secure, and to protect the approximately $500 million in yearly muffin sales. They included the basic recipe, the moisture level of the muffin mixture, the equipment used and the way the product was baked. While many Bimbo employees may have known one or more pieces of the puzzle, only seven knew every step.

That March, apparently as a condition for entering the ranks of the nook and cranny cognoscenti, the company had him sign a confidentiality agreement. It barred him from revealing company secrets, but did not prohibit him from going to work for a competitor.

...

about the same time, according to papers filed by Mr. Botticella’s lawyers, the company embarked on a broad cost-cutting drive. It involved plant closings and layoffs, and the papers say he found the process painful and became unhappy in his job.

Last October, he accepted a job offer from Hostess to run its Eastern operations. The salary was $200,000 a year, $50,000 less than he was paid at Bimbo.

But he did not start right away.

Instead, he arranged to begin his new job in January (in court papers he said he wanted to claim his year-end bonus from Bimbo). But he told no one at Bimbo of his plans and continued to attend meetings and receive documents where confidential company information was discussed.

They confronted Mr. Botticella in a telephone call and he told them it was true.

Within minutes of hanging up the phone, Bimbo’s lawyers say, Mr. Botticella used his laptop computer to access a dozen company files containing confidential information and apparently copied them onto a flash drive. The company said that a search of computer records revealed other activities in the weeks before his departure in which he appeared to have copied sensitive files.

Mr. Botticella said in a deposition that he was merely practicing his computer skills in preparation for his new job. But R. Barclay Surrick, the federal judge who in February granted the injunction barring Mr. Botticella from going to Hostess, concluded that his behavior demonstrated “an intention to use Bimbo’s trade secrets during his intended employment with Hostess.”

pretty interesting

 

[Ns1]

come on, nooks and crannies is hardly some die hard secret. surely some other people know how to do it too...

at the end of the article

"Not so in Thomas’ case, said Theresa Cogswell, a baking industry consultant who spent a good portion of the 1980s and 1990s trying to break Thomas’ English muffin code, first for a bakery ingredient supplier and later for Hostess (then known as Interstate Brands).

“I could get nooks and crannies,” Ms. Cogswell said, “but I couldn’t get them consistently all day, every day.”
"

 

[Perknose]

Lol at your title, OP! 😀

No man can escape the wrath of an enraged Bimbo. There isn't a nook big enough to hide in. A cranny, maybe, but not a nook.

 

[GasX]

Not seeing anything really worthy of me giving two shits here.

It's fairly routine that positions with trade secrets typically cannot go to work for a competing company for at least a certain amount of time.

See: Intel/AMD, Coke/Pepsi, Microsoft/Apple/Google, etc etc etc.

Trade secrets can keep individuals from switching employers.

True, but typically they don't any weight unless you pay them not to work for others.

 

[BoomerD]

Whoda thunk a Bimbo could be so smart?

 

[her209]

I'd eat a Bimbo's muffin over a Hostess' muffin any day of the week.

 

[Jeff7]

I'd eat a Bimbo's muffin over a Hostess' muffin any day of the week.

"The hostess will be seated on your face now."

 

[Lifted]

I'd eat a Bimbo's muffin over a Hostess' muffin any day of the week.

Since the Bimbo in this case is Mexican, you may need an appointment with your doctor after eating this muffin.

 

[techs]

Lol at your title, OP! 😀

No man can escape the wrath of an enraged Bimbo. There isn't a nook big enough to hide in. A cranny, maybe, but not a nook.

Finally, someone gets me.

 

[SarcasticDwarf]

pretty interesting

I don't really get it. Their problem seems to be that he knew he was leaving and continued to work there without telling HR. That seems to be a flawed argument to me since you commonly know you are leaving a job before you actually do, and he had not started working for the new employer.

 

[AmericasTeam]

I don't really get it. Their problem seems to be that he knew he was leaving and continued to work there without telling HR. That seems to be a flawed argument to me since you commonly know you are leaving a job before you actually do, and he had not started working for the new employer.

I think the real problem is he downloaded confidential files to his laptop, onto a flash drive after his employer confronted him about leaving.

 

[SarcasticDwarf]

I think the real problem is he downloaded confidential files to his laptop, onto a flash drive after his employer confronted him about leaving.

That is more than a tad iffy to me as 1) It can easily be misinterpreted and 2) He very likely had entirely legitimate reasons to do so.

Heck, in my position I have direct access and look at more "confidential" files than almost anyone else in my 25k person company, simply because of the nature of my job.

Also, what are they considering confidential, and is it really confidential?

 

[caddlad]

"The hostess will be seated on your face now."

Party of one?

 

[mjrpes3]

Bimbo's muffins have too much of a fishy taste for me. Plus I can't insert my dick into them.

 

[mugs]

That is more than a tad iffy to me as 1) It can easily be misinterpreted and 2) He very likely had entirely legitimate reasons to do so.

Heck, in my position I have direct access and look at more "confidential" files than almost anyone else in my 25k person company, simply because of the nature of my job.

Also, what are they considering confidential, and is it really confidential?

He did? Then why did he claim he was practicing his computer skills?

Edit: let me rephrase: if he had a legitimate reason to download the files, why would he claim he did it to practice his computer skills?

 

[SarcasticDwarf]

He did? Then why did he claim he was practicing his computer skills?

Edit: let me rephrase: if he had a legitimate reason to download the files, why would he claim he did it to practice his computer skills?

Maybe he was practicing something? If someone demanded a justification on why I had accessed, copied, or modified a particular file or set of files more than five minutes after I had done it there is almost no chance I would remember why I had. Maybe I copied a file just to look at it. Maybe there were network issues. Maybe I was converting them to a different file format. In the end I have a very hard time saying someone was doing something wrong for accessing/copying files that they legitimately had access to. Almost anyone that works on a computer all day can very easily be accused of something malicious.

Let me give an example: I regularly visit websites of extremist groups, forums, etc while at work. I do this because part of my job is keeping up with the news about my company and the industry (and related industries). Yet if my company wanted to find a reason to fire me, they could easily point to my visiting those sites in the logs.

I'm not saying the guy is innocent, only that the "facts" in every case are distorted on many levels.

 

[disappoint]

There already are english muffin knockoffs in the supermarkets here, they've been around for years. Interestingly, they have the nooks and crannies just not the same flavor.