THQ has been very naughty, says Ubisoft, who managed to get a court injunction preventing the company from stealing any more of its employees, according to a Eurogamer report. A Quebec court has sided with Ubisoft. The court action relates to THQ recruiting Assassin's Creed creative director Patrice Désilets to lead its new Canadian studio.
Désilets then encouraged Assassin's Creed artistic director Alex Drouin, production manager Mark Besner and associate producer Jean-Francois Boivin to join him over at THQ. The problem with that was that Désilets had a one-year non-compete clause in his Ubisoft contract.
This allowed Ubisoft to get an injunction against THQ and Désilets in January of this year.
But apparently the headhunting continued in February, when former Ubisoft employee Adolfo Gomez-Urda approached Margherita Seconnino about meeting with THQ about a localization job that paid 60 percent more than he was making at Ubisoft.
Adolfo Gomez-Urda is the reason why Ubisoft returned to the court, asking that he be added to the injunction. The court granted that request this week.
"Ubisoft has filed a request before the Superior Court of Québec for injunction orders against THQ Inc. in order to have them comply with the non-solicit clause included in Ubisoft Montreal's employee work contracts," read an Ubisoft statement. "The Superior Court of Québec has granted the injunctions to the satisfaction of Ubisoft. This procedure aims to protect Ubisoft Montreal in a breach of contract situation, and to defend the long-term financial and creative health of the studio."
Source: Eurogamer
Comments
Re: Quebec Court Awards Ubisoft Expanded Injunction Against ...
Non-competition clauses are inherently unfair and basically foster indentured servitude depending on how broadly worded they are.