Agreement of Confidentiality?

[jackson1]

I was hoping that someone here could please describe the way companies in America go about confidentiality when you have left a company. Do you typically sign a contract when being hired, promising not to reveal or talk about said company and its products and workflows, during and after working for the company?

If so, when does that agreement of confidentiality expire? 10 years? Give me the run down, if any Thanks.

[Shawn Lutz]

if you sign a non-disclouser agreement then you can't take company secrets/process or knowledge and go to work for a competitor or yourself in the same type of market. Each one I signed was different so I don't think there is a standard per se. I also think most breaches in the agreement would be tough to prove in a court of law..you can't prevent someone from making a living on a skill they could get before signing the agreeement or after .

[dk1ben]

request a copy of the contract and read, read, read.... every company requests certain things and so on. I know in my field that all the sales and company losses info I have access to is completely off limits when it comes to sharing since they are publicly shared on the market.

Give me a better example of what you need to know and maybe I can clear it up.

But yes. Almost every job I have had since I past the $35000 a year mark has had a contract of sorts.

[jackson1]

Thanks for the input, guys. It helped

[atomic charvel guy]

When we all left the first real company I ever worked at back in '92 after 3 years, the owner of that company was suing us for 25 million and to be putout of the industry forever as we opened a new company and took our accounts that we made with us. At first we were told not make any calls to our customers after the first 3 days being open as another company as an injunction was put on us. after two weeks it was lifted and we could assault our customers again. it took one year for it to reach a courtroom, and after 3 days of slandering, mudslinging and backstabbing, the judge said that we disgusted him with the state of the human race. Both sides that is. He said we had to pay our old boss 3 million dollars and that everyone was in business.
YOU CANNOT STOP ANOTHER HUMAN BEING FROM WORKING in the end.
It has to be some kind of ironclad contract to being prevented to working for another company if youleave one for another.

[rjohnstone]

The only agreement I have right now is an NDA about company procedures and processes. I can go work for the competition, but I'm bound by the NDA for 18 months after employment. After 18 months, I can blab all I want.
There is no criminal penalty if I break it, but they can sue me into non existence if I fuck up and spilled the beans to early.

[GodOfRhythm]

If it IS the case, make sure you have a parallel agreement with your new employer with a pay-out clause, i.e. that they'll cover whatever contractual penalties you happen to get slapped with. (Indemnity, basically)

Over here you can cover it up, since the cause of such a contract can be deemed illicit and the contract can become unenforceable, so to cover it up there are smart legal ways to get around it. I.e. an instant loan with 0% interest, with an added clause of automatic pay-back if no legal action is undertaken against you for such and such matter or a simple legal indemnity contract with a sister company.

If you want to be the middle-man, it is better to ask for a garantuee agreement of sorts.

Anyways, indemnity is the name of the game.

[hippietim]

What Tommy said. Most non-compete agreements are completely unenforceable.

[ejs0614]

yep - it's called right to work...and NDA's cannot prevent you from earning a living...my last one covered 18 months after leaving and they wanted to prevent me from going to work for a direct competitor...don't ask me how they could define it, but hey...if you had an offer from a competitor - then they wanted the right to match your offer...lol...idiots I tell ya

[Jack Napalm]

An NDA and a non-compete agreement are two different things. Usually non-compete agreements are not enforced, especially with right to work states. An NDA can be enforced easier.

[rjohnstone]

+1 NDA's are very enforcible. Civil penalties can be pretty harsh.

No compete agreements don't ever hold up. I still fail to see why anyone even uses them anymore.