Good day!
I hope you could give me your take on the situation of my friend.
My friend is a programmer and got hired six months ago with an IT BPO. He already resigned with his former company when he signed his contract with them. In his contract, it is written that
"After the termination of his/her employment with the company for reason of resignation or otherwise, that he/she will not, for a period of Twelve (12) MONTHS thereafter, be engaged or interested, directly or indirectly either as principal, agent, employee or in any other capacity, with any competitor of the company. For the purposes of this clause, “competitor” is defined as any party with offices in Metro Manila, Philippines, which either a) provides Information Technology (IT) products and/or services or b) markets similar products and services to those marketed by the company. A breach of this provision shall hold you liable for whatever damages as may be determined by the company."
aside from this, it is also stated in his contract that:
"Employee shall disclose fully to the company any and all inventions relating to the business of the company or any of its client/s which employee shall conceive or make during employee's employment with the company, and all such inventions which employee shall conceive or make during the period of six (6) months after the termination of employee's employment with the company."
However, during the course of his employment, he was given a good offer from another company where he can be a part owner and now wishes to resign from his current company. He is even willing to pay the bond of 100K for him to join the other company. The problem is, the company he wishes to join is an IT company. On the part of the prospective employer, it would be risky for them to hire him because of the intellectual property clause of his current company. By virtue of being a "competitor", any programs or codes created by my friend for the next 6 mos will be owned by his current employer.
Considering that the person has been a programmer his whole life, it would be difficult for him to find a job with any IT company in his current situation. What can be the course of action he could make to get out of this situation without risking the products of his prospect company and at the same time free him from the obligation to not be involved with his current company's "competitor" based on the definition given by his contract?