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

416 points throwarayes | 4 comments | 21 Jun 25 16:02 UTC | HN request time: 1.157s | 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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tianqi ◴[21 Jun 25 19:56 UTC] No.44340313[source]▶
I think the Chinese law is effective in this regard: in order to maintain any non-competition agreement, the company must continue to pay you a monthly compensation amount equal to 30% of your total monthly income when you were at the company. Whenever the payment stops, the non-competition agreement is automatically void.
replies(11): >>44340472 #>>44340562 #>>44340579 #>>44340850 #>>44341170 #>>44341188 #>>44341352 #>>44341558 #>>44343224 #>>44346921 #>>44349939 #
coderatlarge ◴[21 Jun 25 20:21 UTC] No.44340472[source]▶
can you choose to refuse these payments to avoid the responsibility?
replies(1): >>44340580 #
whiplash451 ◴[21 Jun 25 20:39 UTC] No.44340580[source]▶
I’ve seen this is France and UK but it lasts only a few months and no you can’t refuse the payment - but the company can refuse to pay and set you free.
replies(1): >>44341185 #
v5v3 ◴[21 Jun 25 22:26 UTC] No.44341185[source]▶
In UK it's called gardening leave. A period when you are still employed but not at work and can't join another company without agreement.

Uk law generally is that non compete clause is ok, if the length of time is reasonable. But you can't stop a person with a trade from applying that trade unreasonably.

Most tend to be 3-6 months.

Normally it's to stop a person leaving from stealing clients.

replies(3): >>44341571 #>>44342501 #>>44343066 #
1. 1vuio0pswjnm7 ◴[22 Jun 25 03:02 UTC] No.44343066[source]▶
There is a difference between non-solicitation and non-compete. In the US, the former obligation might be acceptable while the later might not.
replies(1): >>44345842 #
2. throwaway2037 ◴[22 Jun 25 11:00 UTC] No.44345842[source]▶
The "non-solicitation" agreements are so stupid. There is a cottage industry in headhunters where you tell your next employer who you want to recruit, then they ask a 3rd party recruiter to go track down that person after X months... and invite them to interview. I have seen it so many times in career.
replies(1): >>44346147 #
3. ghaff ◴[22 Jun 25 11:57 UTC] No.44346147[source]▶
It's definitely fuzzy. I mean, someone like an account rep or a financial advisor (and their clients) can't unknow somebody. So even if someone isn't taking their client list and calling/emailing everyone, there's inevitably going to be an element of client "poaching" so long as they're still in the same business.
replies(1): >>44353670 #
4. coderatlarge ◴[23 Jun 25 08:49 UTC] No.44353670{3}[source]▶
fyi there are clauses in contracts that try to control the use of residuals in “unaided memory” , trying to refer to stuff you just happen to know by dint of having been exposed to them, even though they’re in no explicit notes.