Self-study
P1
Often when a highly skilled and experienced employee leaves one company to work for another, there is the potential for a transfer of sensitive information between competitors. ███ █████ ██████████ ██ ████ █████ ██████ ███████████████ ███ █████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ███ ████████████ ██████████████ ███████████ ████ ███ █████ █████████████ ███ █████ ██ ███████████ ██ ████ ███████ ██████████ ███ ██ ████ ████ ███ ██ █████ ██████████ ███
Problem ·
When employees change companies, they might take trade secrets with them
One principle - companies have right to their own intellectual property. Another principle - people can seek other employment and freely use their own abilities. These appear irreconcilable.
Courts' solution ·
Allow employees to change companies, but order employees not to disclose former employer's secrets
One critique ·
Court's solution doesn't protect employees' rights
Author's critique ·
Court's solution doesn't protect trade secrets
The transition "but it is also doubtful..." tells us that the author will focus on this critique. She won't focus on the other one.
P2
██ ██ █████████ ██████████ ██ ██████ ███████ ██ ████ ████ ██ █████ █████████ ████ ███ ███ ████████ ████ ██████ █████████ ███ ██████████ ████ ██ ████████ ███ ███ ███████████ ███████ ████ ███ ████ █████ ████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ████████ ████ ██ █████ █████ ████████████ █████████ █████████████ ██████ ███ ████ ███████████ ████ ██ ███ ██████ █████████ ███ ████████████ ██ ███████ ██ █████████ █████████ ██████ ██████████ ██████████ ███████ ███ █████████ █████████ ██ ███ ████████ █████ █████████ ███████████ █████████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ ██████████ ████ ███ █████████ █████████
Support for Author's Critique ·
Employees can't separate expertise they gained from prior employment
However, companies might claim that part of that expertise involves intellectual property.
P3
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Support for Author's Critique ·
Court orders don't stop subsconscious use of trade secrets
Concession ·
Court orders, in theory, prohibit subconcious use of trade secrets ("leakage")
Author's response to concession ·
Hard to enforce prohibition against leakage
There won't be much evidence of subconscious use of secrets (because it's subconscious). And, it's hard to distinguish legitimate skill developed independently by employees from skill acquired through secrets.
Author's main point ·
Court orders prohibiting disclosure of secrets are unlikely to be effective
Passage Style
Critique or debate
Problem-analysis
1.
Which one of the following ████ ██████████ █████████ ███ ████ █████ ██ ███ ████████
a
There are more █████████ ████ ████ █████ ███████████ ██ ████████ ████ █ █████████ █████ ██ ███████ ███ ████████████ ████████ ███ ████████████ ██████ ██ ████ ████ ███ ██ █████ ██████████
The author doesn’t discuss any other ways that are more effective than court injunctions. Although the author doesn’t believe injunctions are effective, we don’t know whether are better ways to protect intellectual property rights and a person’s right to make free use of their abilities.
b
Court injunctions must ██ ████████████ ██ ████ ███ ██ ██████ █ ████████ █████ ██ ██████████ █████████████ █████ ████████
The author doesn’t advocate for the strengthening of court injunctions or suggest that they need to be strengthened. She simply criticizes court injunctions as a way to protect trade secrets that aren’t in the form of documents and other concrete items.
c
Enforcement of court ███████████ ████████ ██ ███████ ███████████ ███████████ ██ ██████████ ████ █████████ ██████ ████ ███████████ ██ ███ ██████████
Too strong. The author never suggests that enforcement of injunctions is “impossible.” She notes that certain difficulties make enforcement more difficult, and that an injunction is “
d
Court injunctions prohibiting █████████ ████ ██████████ ██████ ██████████ █████ ███████ ██ ███ █████████ ████████ ██ ███ ███████ ███ ██ █████ ████████ ███████████
This best captures the author’s main point, which is that court injunctions against disclosure of trade secrets are
e
The rights of █████████ ██ ████ ████ ███ ██ █████ ███████ ███ ████████ ████████ ███ █████ █████████ ██████ ██ ███ ████████████ ██████ ██ ████ ██ █████ ███████████ ████████ ██ ███████ ███ ████████ ██ █████ ████████
Although the author does believe that employees’ rights are limited by court injunctions, the main point doesn’t relate to employees’ rights. Rather, it relates to whether injunctions against disclosure can protect a company’s trade secrets.