Joe Swartz, an Employee of Acme Company, Worked for Months

question 52

Essay

Joe Swartz, an employee of Acme Company, worked for months during company time and used Acme's equipment to develop an idea that he had been nurturing. Finally, the idea came to fruition. Swartz's employer laid claim to the invention on the grounds that the firm's equipment had been utilized on company time. Swartz had obtained a patent on the invention and claimed that his employer had no rights to the invention at all. Who is right? How could an employer guard against such arguments in the future?

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Definitions:

Financial Leverage

The use of borrowed funds in an attempt to increase the returns to equity.

Fixed Costs

For expenses like rent, salaries, and insurance premiums, their amounts do not fluctuate with the levels of output or sales.

Variable Costs

Costs that change in proportion to the level of goods or services produced by a business.

EPS

Earnings Per Share, a financial metric that divides a company's profit by the number of its outstanding shares to indicate the company's profitability on a per-share basis.