Some large companies often require their employees to sign a confidentiality agreement or ownership agreement that requires the employee to disclose all inventions that have been written, designed or reduced up to one year after the end of staff employment. Some of these agreements also provide that such inventions are supposed to be owned by the former employer and that this presumption can only be overcome if the worker can prove that the invention is eligible for protection under the California Laboratory Code 2870. To cover this burden, the worker must demonstrate that the invention (1) was fully developed at its own time, without using the employer`s equipment, supplies, facilities or business secrets; (2) do not refer, at the time of conception or reduction, to the practice of the employer or to the actual or proven research or development expected or result from the worker`s work for the employer. See California Labor Code 2870 (a). Instead, you can create two separate chords. A confidentiality agreement for your trade secrets and another non-compete agreement. In this way, even if your foreign agreement is cancelled, the confidentiality of your business secrets will not automatically be cancelled. In California, confidentiality agreements are generally legal, but must be properly developed or considered unenforceable. In order to avoid major problems on the street, employers should take the time to ensure that their current agreements are as scripted. When developing a confidentiality agreement (NDA), it is essential to state in concrete terms the nature of the confidential information to be disclosed. In the defence of a person accused of misappropriation of confidential information, the defence will certainly make one or more of the following arguments: while this alternative seems to easily address the issues discussed above, the use of this alternative in a state that imposes eternal confidentiality obligations for all confidential information is perhaps a major drawback. Namely, if a breach of confidentiality occurs after the shorter period has expired, the discloser will be responsible for enforcing the agreement to find that the contentious information is a trade secret.

KFC operates in the same way in disguise and only a handful of employees know its secret recipe for “11 herbs and spices” and all of these employees are said to have signed confidentiality promises. Unlike non-competitors, which are rarely applicable, confidentiality agreements, which are properly developed, are generally applicable. It is therefore important that any staff member who receives a confidentiality agreement reads it carefully.