Tag: unfair competition

The New York Times (NYT) is taking on tech giant Microsoft (MS) and The Disrupters - the OpenAI group of companies (OAI) - in the New York District Court, alleging that MS and OAI are copying and using NYT's work and "massive investment in journalism" without permission or payment to create generative AI (GenAI) tools and products, like Microsoft's Co-Pilot (formerly Bing Chat) and OpenAI's ChatGPT, that compete with it. This, according to NYT, translates into vast savings and profits for MS and OAI.

The South African courts have by and large, consistently upheld an employer’s right to restrain an employee form unfairly competing with a former employer where certain conditions have been met. These include the employer being able to show a protectable interest and a properly drafted restraint.

In many cases when employers hire executive level, management or key employees, there is a recognition that these hires can impact the success of the business, due to the individual's recognition in their industry, or knowledge and experience, or client and customer relationships, or a combination of all of these qualities.