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Tell HN: Beware confidentiality agreements that act as lifetime non competes

416 points throwarayes | 2 comments | 21 Jun 25 16:02 UTC | HN request time: 0.505s | source

Just a note of warning from personal experience.

Companies don’t really need non-competes anymore. Some companies take an extremely broad interpretation of IP confidentiality, where they consider doing any work in the industry during your lifetime an inevitable confidentiality violation. They argue it would be impossible for you to work elsewhere in this industry during your entire career without violating confidentiality with the technical and business instincts you bring to that domain. It doesn’t require conscious violation on your part (they argue).

So beware and read your employment agreement carefully.

More here https://www.promarket.org/2024/02/08/confidentiality-agreeme...

And this is the insane legal doctrine behind this

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inevitable_disclosure

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transactional ◴[21 Jun 25 16:17 UTC] No.44338688[source]▶
...but are they enforceable?
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throwarayes ◴[21 Jun 25 16:21 UTC] No.44338722[source]▶
So far it seems maybe?, but according to the article some courts and agencies are pushing back. Well the FTC was at least in 2023.

California bans anything that is effectively a non compete.

replies(4): >>44338949 #>>44339241 #>>44339553 #>>44352629 #
1. codingdave ◴[21 Jun 25 16:49 UTC] No.44338949[source]▶
I didn't see any references in the article you linked to any cases where it had been enforced. I see a lot of commentary that validates the concern, and a listing of half a dozen states where they are being struck down.

So the callout to be wary of them is totally legit... but it doesn't look like they are going to be enforceable when such things go through the courts.

replies(1): >>44338963 #
2. throwarayes ◴[21 Jun 25 16:51 UTC] No.44338963[source]▶
Yeah the warning is: you may, like me, find a litigious paranoid former employer who freaks out at everything :-/

I’d rather not carry the cost of learning it’s not enforceable.