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

416 points throwarayes | 10 comments | 21 Jun 25 16:02 UTC | HN request time: 1.783s | source | bottom

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

Show context
airocker ◴[21 Jun 25 23:47 UTC] No.44341579[source]▶
So if you are against this, you are okay with Coca Cola’s secret to be divulged by any employee to any competitor? If you cannot let companies maintain trade secrets, you may as well close them down.
replies(4): >>44341592 #>>44341594 #>>44341634 #>>44342882 #
1. 93po ◴[21 Jun 25 23:50 UTC] No.44341592[source]▶
as far as i can tell there are a million sodas that are extremely close to coca cola and coca cola is still doing just fine
replies(2): >>44341598 #>>44341643 #
2. airocker ◴[21 Jun 25 23:51 UTC] No.44341598[source]▶
That’s my whole point. They are not using Coke’s formula
replies(1): >>44341698 #
3. sircastor ◴[22 Jun 25 00:01 UTC] No.44341643[source]▶
Getting off topic, there's an interesting This American Life story about the Coca Cola formula, and why there are many extremely close formulas, but no exact replicas.

[1] https://www.thisamericanlife.org/427/original-recipe

replies(2): >>44341664 #>>44342034 #
4. airocker ◴[22 Jun 25 00:08 UTC] No.44341664[source]▶
I think if the extremely close replicas ever threatened Coke's existence, they would sue. Especially if a former employee started it. I think trade secret protection is the only thing that enables a company to operate. Especially small companies, otherwise only large companies can operate. Any employee with a rich uncle can finish the small company off without this protection.
5. harimau777 ◴[22 Jun 25 00:15 UTC] No.44341698[source]▶
But they are using functionally equivalent formulas and Coke is still fine.
replies(1): >>44341713 #
6. airocker ◴[22 Jun 25 00:18 UTC] No.44341713{3}[source]▶
if coke did not have deep pockets, it would have gone under without this protection.
replies(1): >>44368915 #
7. baobun ◴[22 Jun 25 00:55 UTC] No.44342034[source]▶
My head canon of the secret recipe is the Kung Fu Panda ending.

Protagonist gets to open the vault of secret formula after decades working their way to the top. Inside is a Coke label with the ingredients part unprinted.

It was always the brand.

replies(1): >>44342069 #
8. airocker ◴[22 Jun 25 00:58 UTC] No.44342069{3}[source]▶
Brand takes money to build. IF an employee took the secret to their rich uncle when coke was small, we would not be talking about Coke. Whatever small the formula was.
9. 93po ◴[24 Jun 25 17:59 UTC] No.44368915{4}[source]▶
there are a million different manufacturers of, for example, hot dogs, and those hot dogs basically taste all the same to everyone, and yet they're all making basically identical hotdogs and doing fine
replies(1): >>44388825 #
10. airocker ◴[26 Jun 25 16:18 UTC] No.44388825{5}[source]▶
But none of them would end up becoming Coca Cola. At least not just by selling hot dogs.