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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: 0.423s | 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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OutOfHere ◴[21 Jun 25 18:15 UTC] No.44339555[source]▶
What exactly should one be on the lookout for? Practically every company has an IP confidentiality agreement.
replies(2): >>44339610 #>>44339845 #
1. dboreham ◴[21 Jun 25 18:55 UTC] No.44339845[source]▶
ianal but: don't perform personal work while you are employed by an employer in the same industry. Or at least make it like you didn't do that to any observer.
replies(1): >>44340840 #
2. kragen ◴[21 Jun 25 21:25 UTC] No.44340840[source]▶
You may have misunderstood the topic, which, I'll remind you, is confidentiality agreements that act as lifetime non-competes, which means for the rest of your life after you are employed by an employer in the same industry, not while you are employed by an employer in the same industry.