Free and Open Competition Boundary Condition Applied to Engineer A Post-Departure Solicitation
P · Principle
Individual
http://proethica.org/ontology/case/178#Free_and_Open_Competition_Boundary_Condition_Applied_to_Engineer_A_Post-Departure_Solicitation
Properties
Instance of
FreeandOpenCompetitionasEngineeringEthicsBoundaryCondition
http://proethica.org/ontology/intermediate#FreeandOpenCompetitionasEngineeringEthicsBoundaryCondition
Applied to
Engineer A's eventual solicitation of Clover City's business after establishing his independent firm
Balancing with
Specialized Knowledge Constraint on Post-Departure Competition
Tripartite Interest Balancing in Engineer Departure Scenarios
Concrete expression
The BER affirmed that Engineer A's eventual solicitation of Clover City's business after the voluntary waiting period was within the bounds of free and open competition — no contractual or ethical prohibition prevented him from competing for former employer clients absent specialized knowledge constraints
Confidence
0.88
Importance
medium
Interpretation
Free and open competition permits engineers to solicit former employer clients after departure, subject to confidentiality and specialized knowledge constraints — where those constraints are absent, competition is ethically permissible
Invoked by
Engineer A ABC Employee Water Treatment Report Developer
Tension resolution
The Board found Engineer A's competition permissible because no specialized knowledge constraint applied and no contractual no-compete existed
Source Evidence
Source text
There was no formal written agreement between Engineer A and ABC that would address the issue of whether and under what terms Engineer A could compete with ABC after departing from ABC.
Text references
There was no formal written agreement between Engineer A and ABC that would address the issue of whether and under what terms Engineer A could compete with ABC after departing from ABC.
it does not appear that Engineer A has obtained any particular specialized knowledge as an employee of ABC that would restrict his ability to establish his own firm and eventually compete with ABC
TTL
@prefix case178: <http://proethica.org/ontology/case/178#> .
@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#> .
case178:Free_and_Open_Competition_Boundary_Condition_Applied_to_Engineer_A_Post-Departure_Solicitation a proeth:FreeandOpenCompetitionasEngineeringEthicsBoundaryCondition,
owl:NamedIndividual ;
rdfs:label "Free and Open Competition Boundary Condition Applied to Engineer A Post-Departure Solicitation" ;
proeth:appliedto "Engineer A's eventual solicitation of Clover City's business after establishing his independent firm" ;
proeth:balancingwith "Specialized Knowledge Constraint on Post-Departure Competition",
"Tripartite Interest Balancing in Engineer Departure Scenarios" ;
proeth:conceptCategory "Principle" ;
proeth:concreteexpression "The BER affirmed that Engineer A's eventual solicitation of Clover City's business after the voluntary waiting period was within the bounds of free and open competition — no contractual or ethical prohibition prevented him from competing for former employer clients absent specialized knowledge constraints" ;
proeth:confidence "0.88" ;
proeth:discoveredincase "178" ;
proeth:discoveredinpass "2" ;
proeth:discoveredinsection "discussion" ;
proeth:firstdiscoveredat "2026-03-01T08:35:45.392536+00:00" ;
proeth:firstdiscoveredincase "178" ;
proeth:generatedattime "2026-03-01T08:35:45.392536+00:00" ;
proeth:importance "medium" ;
proeth:interpretation "Free and open competition permits engineers to solicit former employer clients after departure, subject to confidentiality and specialized knowledge constraints — where those constraints are absent, competition is ethically permissible" ;
proeth:invokedby "Engineer A ABC Employee Water Treatment Report Developer" ;
proeth:principleclass "Free and Open Competition as Engineering Ethics Boundary Condition" ;
proeth:sourcetext "There was no formal written agreement between Engineer A and ABC that would address the issue of whether and under what terms Engineer A could compete with ABC after departing from ABC." ;
proeth:tensionresolution "The Board found Engineer A's competition permissible because no specialized knowledge constraint applied and no contractual no-compete existed" ;
proeth:textreferences "There was no formal written agreement between Engineer A and ABC that would address the issue of whether and under what terms Engineer A could compete with ABC after departing from ABC.",
"it does not appear that Engineer A has obtained any particular specialized knowledge as an employee of ABC that would restrict his ability to establish his own firm and eventually compete with ABC" ;
proeth:wasattributedto "Case 178 Extraction" ;
prov:generatedAtTime "2026-03-01T08:48:26.021494"^^xsd:dateTime ;
prov:wasGeneratedBy "ProEthica Case 178 Extraction" .
Metadata
Extraction details
Discovered in case
178
Discovered in pass
2
Discovered in section
discussion
First discovered
2026-03-01T08:35:45.392536+00:00
First case
178
Generated
2026-03-01T08:35:45.392536+00:00
Attributed to
Case 178 Extraction
Generated
2026-03-01T08:48:26.021494
Generated by
ProEthica Case 178 Extraction