stapel - 5:32 pm on Mar 21, 2005 (gmt 0)

I don't see how this is any different than if she learned how to use Microsoft Excel at one company and then used that knowledge on her own time to build applications with it. It is not their software.

But if she learned how to produce spreadsheet software at the company, and then went off and produced her own, competing, spreadsheet software, Microsoft might have a complaint. She learned how a product works and how it is used while at her job, and is now producing a competing product. I don't know that her employer would have a problem, but the software supplier might. I doubt they licensed the software to the company in order to allow the company (or a free-lance employee) to produce a directly-competing product.

I would definitely talk to a lawyer, after asking for copies of any paperwork she signed or is subject to as a condition of her employment. There may be something in the licensing agreement between the software producer and her employer or in her employment contract that prevents her from doing what she's trying.

Eliz.