Scammed by partners. Is there something I can do? I'll make it as brief as possible. Simply put, I knew this group of people who were building something (it had to do with IT). I knew they'd something, but I also knew they wouldn't get anything done because they're very naive and have zero business sense. So I offered them to partner with my company to add more tech on top of it and approach some investors I knew. One of these investors was interested and agreed to finance the project. His condition was that he bring some acquaintances on board, which of course we accepted, even though I knew one of these people and knew he was shady as hell. On top of that, they're both lawyers. So we set up an LLC in Singapore. The investor added capital and some expertise, the group I first contacted added their idea and more work, and I added all my knowledge, as well as my entire team, offices, equipment, etc. I was then also appointed CEO. After about three months, the investor started complaining about ridiculous things, including things that didn't exist. I was demoted from CEO to Head of Design, and my right-hand man (a nuclear engineer) went from Head of Development to Developer. Since we didn't care about titles, we accepted it (not happily, but accepted). Then the investor and his shady friends started insisting that since I was no longer CEO, I should give most of my shares to them. I didn't accept that, and things got really weird after that. Finally, they told me that they wanted me out of the company and wanted all my shares. I was so tired that I told them I'd no problem leaving the company, but they'd never get the shares for free. They offered me a ridiculous amount for my 21%, which I didn't accept. Three days later, I learned that they'd set up another company in Singapore and stolen all my work. Last month they removed every trace of my work, but of course I've all kinds of evidence and I'd even show screenshots from Archive.org. I really don't know if I can do anything. There's a lot of money involved because they've started to get the funds from VC. Based on the calculations I did and the amounts I knew they were going to ask for (because I got the whole thing rolling), I think they've secured at least 2 million by now, or at least have some sort of agreement on that money. So it's tempting to follow up on it. I've all kinds of evidence, I even recorded our last conversation ( letting they know I was doing it ), but on the other hand I'm afraid I don't have many chances and I don't even know where to start (hire a lawyer in Singapore? litigate from my country?).
You would start by contacting a local lawyer. At some point you may want to take them to court, and an important question is, what court has jurisdiction? If you sue them in your country, there may be an issue in trying to collect on any judgment, but maybe it is manageable. Do your country's court have jurisdiction? That depends on your country's laws. Step one is to find out if it is even possible to sue them locally. Bear in mind that even though you set up an LLC in Singapore, you are not necessarily suing that LLC, you might be suing another corporation or set of people. So &quot;Singapore&quot; is not necessarily the only other choice. Start local, even if it turns out that you have to engage a multi-national law firm with lawyers everywhere.
You should talk to an attorney, but based on what you've provided, there are potential claims for copyright infringement, trade secret misappropriation, conversion, unfair trade practices, and probably quite a bit more.
There is no IP in ideas! There is copyright in writing it down - they can't use your exact words without permission. However, sending it to them in the form of a suggestion would give them a pretty much unassailable argument that you have given them an implicit licence. You can patent an invention (not an idea), claim IP in a trade mark (also, not an idea), register a design (again, not an idea) and hold copyright in an artistic work (once more, not an idea). They are required to keep confidences but offering them a suggestion probably doesn't count as supplying confidential information. I can see no risk in acting on customer suggestions. Hence, the idea to raise prices can be acted on or not at the discretion of the company.
Possibly The game company has almost certainly excluded liability under the contract you entered. There may be some consumer protection that you have that they cannot exclude - I don’t know enough about German law to meaningfully comment. Notwithstanding, if you were to initiate legal action against the, as yet, unknown wrongdoer, you could subpoena the relevant records from the game company with a court order. No matter what privacy or other protections the other person has, the game company must obey the order or be in contempt. Without such an order the game company is right that they can’t disclose details of other users. As a practical matter, it will cost several hundred € to initiate legal action and several thousand to pursue it to the end. And you might lose. A better response is to treat the lost €80 as a relatively cheap life lesson - many people lose a lot more learning to recognise scams.
It sounds to me like the parties made proposals with an intent to draw them up and formalize them but didn't intend to form binding agreements. The first agreement sounds vague. The second was committed to writing, suggesting that the written deal was to be the real agreement, and not executed. In the last case, it doesn't appear that there was an agreement because there was no meeting of the minds on the essential term, which was the price. Going to court is expensive. It is expensive whether this is litigating underlying disputes or trying to enforce an alleged oral settlement that is disputed. Also, settlement discussions that don't result in a resolution are not admissible as evidence in court. Making a deal would be nice, but Dave's concept of what constitutes a deal seems to be out of touch with reality.
If you are producing and selling it, that is an absolute bar to patentability by anyone else (this is known as prior art). So if you are using it very publicly before they file, they can't get the patent.
What would you suggest I should do in this situation? Do not sign the NDA and do not get intimidated by Mr A. Instead, think about how you can prove the terms you two already agreed. Mr A is trying to override the initial agreement with one which clearly is more favorable to him. Your problem is that proving the terms of a verbal agreement is quite difficult, especially once the counterparty's/partner's attitude has worsened that much. This is why you two should have signed a contract at an earlier stage. Hopefully at least some your communications with him are in writing, since the substance of those records might support your account of the facts and therewith a fact-finder could infer the terms of the initial agreement. In those communications Mr A might have inadvertently said something that weakens or defeats his legal position. Depending on how much your friend knew about the matter, you might also want to secure an affidavit from him, any written communications you had with him in that regard, and also ask him (in writing) to preserve records of any communications he has had with Mr A from the time your friend was making the connection that led to this partnership. That being said, it is important to emphasize that these lines of action will be unavailing if you agree to Mr A's new terms.
Not very nice of the employer, actually quite cowardly. Being not nice and cowardly is not against the law. Being in the EU, and having been employed for ten years, the company will have duties to find a different position in the company at the same pay, and only when that fails, the employee can be laid off and will have a reasonable amount of notice, plus a reasonable amount of redundancy pay due to him. Unfortunately, he can expect only the legal minimum if the company behaved like this already. Good companies would provide a generous redundancy pay, plus pay for you to have any agreements checked by an employment lawyer of your choice - which means the employee can be sure they are not ripped off, and the employer is sure they cannot be sued for any reason. Obviously if they want him to quit, then the one single thing your relative mustn't do is to quit. Let them pay him. Plenty of time to look for a new job.