Pre-Departure Promotional Prohibition Literal Boundary Applied to Firm B Engineers
P · Principle
Individual
http://proethica.org/ontology/case/168#Pre-Departure_Promotional_Prohibition_Literal_Boundary_Applied_to_Firm_B_Engineers
Properties
Instance of
Pre-DeparturePromotionalNegotiationProhibitionWithLiteralBoundary
http://proethica.org/ontology/intermediate#Pre-DeparturePromotionalNegotiationProhibitionWithLiteralBoundary
Applied to
Internal planning discussions among the four engineers prior to departure from Firm A
Balancing with
At-Will Employment Symmetry and Engineer Mobility Right
Loyalty
Concrete expression
The four engineers' internal discussions about soliciting former clients of Engineer A while still employed did not constitute a violation because they did not undertake actual promotional efforts or negotiations with those clients while still in Engineer A's employ
Confidence
0.9
Importance
high
Interpretation
The ethics code prohibition on pre-departure promotional efforts is read literally: only actual client-facing promotion or negotiation while employed triggers the violation; internal deliberation among prospective co-founders does not
Invoked by
Four Departing Engineers Firm B Principals
Tension resolution
The literal reading of the code provision preserves engineer mobility and freedom of thought while still prohibiting actual competitive solicitation during employment
Source Evidence
Source text
We may assume that the four engineers possibly discussed among themselves the idea of soliciting work of former clients of A while still in his employ, but under a literal reading of that part of §7(a) that degree of activity would not constitute a violation of the code.
Text references
As we understand the facts, however, the four engineers did not undertake the promotional efforts with the former clients of A while in his employ, nor did they engage in negotiations for work while in the employ of A.
We may assume that the four engineers possibly discussed among themselves the idea of soliciting work of former clients of A while still in his employ, but under a literal reading of that part of §7(a) that degree of activity would not constitute a violation of the code.
TTL
@prefix case168: <http://proethica.org/ontology/case/168#> .
@prefix owl: <http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#> .
@prefix proeth: <http://proethica.org/ontology/intermediate#> .
@prefix prov: <http://www.w3.org/ns/prov#> .
@prefix rdfs: <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#> .
@prefix xsd: <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#> .
case168:Pre-Departure_Promotional_Prohibition_Literal_Boundary_Applied_to_Firm_B_Engineers a proeth:Pre-DeparturePromotionalNegotiationProhibitionWithLiteralBoundary,
owl:NamedIndividual ;
rdfs:label "Pre-Departure Promotional Prohibition Literal Boundary Applied to Firm B Engineers" ;
proeth:appliedto "Internal planning discussions among the four engineers prior to departure from Firm A" ;
proeth:balancingwith "At-Will Employment Symmetry and Engineer Mobility Right",
"Loyalty" ;
proeth:conceptCategory "Principle" ;
proeth:concreteexpression "The four engineers' internal discussions about soliciting former clients of Engineer A while still employed did not constitute a violation because they did not undertake actual promotional efforts or negotiations with those clients while still in Engineer A's employ" ;
proeth:confidence "0.9" ;
proeth:discoveredincase "168" ;
proeth:discoveredinpass "2" ;
proeth:discoveredinsection "discussion" ;
proeth:firstdiscoveredat "2026-03-02T02:46:59.536015+00:00" ;
proeth:firstdiscoveredincase "168" ;
proeth:generatedattime "2026-03-02T02:46:59.536015+00:00" ;
proeth:importance "high" ;
proeth:interpretation "The ethics code prohibition on pre-departure promotional efforts is read literally: only actual client-facing promotion or negotiation while employed triggers the violation; internal deliberation among prospective co-founders does not" ;
proeth:invokedby "Four Departing Engineers Firm B Principals" ;
proeth:principleclass "Pre-Departure Promotional Negotiation Prohibition With Literal Boundary" ;
proeth:sourcetext "We may assume that the four engineers possibly discussed among themselves the idea of soliciting work of former clients of A while still in his employ, but under a literal reading of that part of §7(a) that degree of activity would not constitute a violation of the code." ;
proeth:tensionresolution "The literal reading of the code provision preserves engineer mobility and freedom of thought while still prohibiting actual competitive solicitation during employment" ;
proeth:textreferences "As we understand the facts, however, the four engineers did not undertake the promotional efforts with the former clients of A while in his employ, nor did they engage in negotiations for work while in the employ of A.",
"We may assume that the four engineers possibly discussed among themselves the idea of soliciting work of former clients of A while still in his employ, but under a literal reading of that part of §7(a) that degree of activity would not constitute a violation of the code." ;
proeth:wasattributedto "Case 168 Extraction" ;
prov:generatedAtTime "2026-03-02T02:59:28.929944"^^xsd:dateTime ;
prov:wasGeneratedBy "ProEthica Case 168 Extraction" .
Metadata
Extraction details
Discovered in case
168
Discovered in pass
2
Discovered in section
discussion
First discovered
2026-03-02T02:46:59.536015+00:00
First case
168
Generated
2026-03-02T02:46:59.536015+00:00
Attributed to
Case 168 Extraction
Generated
2026-03-02T02:59:28.929944
Generated by
ProEthica Case 168 Extraction