Some introduction to preface: I do web design/development for a small company in Missouri. My employment contract has no language regarding who owns the work I do internally, nothing about intellectual property, and no non-compete (very irresponsible, if you ask me...). The other designer (who had an identical contract) just left for another job, and she cleaned out her files, took every template she made for website proposals, even downloaded and erased the custom WordPress theme we use off our company servers.
Can my company press her to obtain that property back, legally? Or does she own it? Is there such a thing as implied ownership if she never signed anything?
A couple things to consider: these items were created using company equipment (a company-provided Mac and Adobe software licensed by the company), and were created on paid company time for use within the scope of company projects. She wants to take the templates, replace logos and names, and use them in her portfolio and possibly at her new job.
Anyone have any knowledge on this, or legislation/text for me to go research?