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

416 points throwarayes | 1 comments | 21 Jun 25 16:02 UTC | HN request time: 0.21s | 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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ww520 ◴[21 Jun 25 22:26 UTC] No.44341186[source]▶
Not just employment contracts, some companies require NDA just for interviews.
replies(2): >>44341803 #>>44346013 #
airocker ◴[22 Jun 25 00:31 UTC] No.44341803[source]▶
IF you go to an interview, and nothing was divulged to you, this NDA does not mean anything. But if youwork at a competitor, and you get an interviewer tell you things that the company does not want to divulge, company has some protection. Not all laws and processes are bad.
replies(1): >>44344974 #
1. wewtyflakes ◴[22 Jun 25 08:12 UTC] No.44344974[source]▶
Seems like the company should not opt to divulge that information then.