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More likely -

"Mentor" was training (grooming) these interns so that they would eventually work at his company.

Interns decided to move out on their own (nothing wrong there),

Interns signed some kind of overly general internship / employment contract that included some form of non-compete which he's leveraging to strengthen his lawsuit.

If I'm mistaken and the mentor's lawsuit really is as weak as the founders exclaim - this should be thrown out fairly quickly - the increase in PR will probably lead to a larger Kickstarter round - all will end well.



>Interns signed some kind of overly general internship / employment contract that included some form of non-compete which he's leveraging to strengthen his lawsuit.

That doesn't seem to be the case here, from TFA. It seems that it's more of a general IP infringement claim.


And regarding their website at that, not their products. A cursory look at the products on both companies websites doesn't show any obvious copying of products designs. And if killspenser thinks they own the idea of a top navigation bar...

I will agree though, we have heard only one side of the story.


I am curious how much of the employment contract would be enforceable considering that the internships were unpaid.

To go off on a moralistic tangent; if the "Mentor" didn't want to create competitors he should have paid the people doing work for him.


The interns note that they were accused of stealing designs in the mentor's complaint. They never address this, and talk instead about website infringement issues.

If the suit relates to the misappropriation of their mentor's designs, they are in hot water. If the suit is merely about them copying the website, then it may blow over fairly quickly.


If the suit is merely about them copying the website, then it may blow over fairly quickly.

If it turns out that these interns copy/pasted a few lines of CSS, then they will be righteously raked over the coals.




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