Doing Your Job Well to Benefit Your Employer Doesn’t Result in Unjust Enrichment

In a recent case out of the Western District of Pennsylvania, Argue v. Triton Digital, Inc., Civil Action No. 16-133 (behind paywall), Argue, an engineer, brought suit alleging that his employer had been unjustly enriched by Argue’s efforts. It’s an interesting allegation. The court pointed out that what Argue was characterizing as “unjust enrichment” was really just him performing his job. He received a salary in exchange for his work, which included inventions, and his employer took that work and those inventions and used them to increase the value of its business. That wasn’t unjust enrichment; the employer was entitled to do exactly what it did.  

Complicating this further? Argue had an employment agreement. The court pointed out that unjust enrichment is a doctrine that’s supposed to be used only when no contract exists between the parties. Here there was a written agreement that provided Argue’s employer with the right to Argue’s inventions on the job. He could not, therefore, argue unjust enrichment at all.