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Non-Compete Agreement Beyond Term of Employment?
stellar7 writes "I work in IT for a large company. They have recently asked me to sign a new non-compete and confidentiality agreement. I signed an agreement when I began employment, but now they want me to sign an updated one. Behind the link are a few paragraphs from the new agreement. It states that the company has a royalty-free license to any 'Invention' I create including up to six months after leaving (and the company fully owns any Invention that relates to the company in this same period). Has anyone signed a similar agreement that reaches beyond the end of employment and includes things not related to the business?"
A. Employee shall promptly and fully disclose in writing to [Company] any inventions, improvements, discoveries, operating techniques, or "know-how", whether patentable or not (hereinafter referred to as "Inventions"), conceived or discovered by Employee, either solely or jointly with others, during the course of Employee's employment with [Company], or within six (6) months thereafter.
B. Employee shall, on the request of [Company], and hereby does, assign to [Company] all of Employee's right, title and interest in any of the Inventions which relate to, or are useful in connection with, any aspect of the business of [Company], as carried on or contemplated at the time the Invention is made, whether or not Employee's duties are directly related thereto. [Company] shall be the sole and absolute owner of any of the Inventions so assigned. Employee shall perform any further acts or execute any papers, at the expense of [Company], which it may consider necessary to secure for [Company] or its successors or assigns any and all rights relating to the Inventions, including patents in the United States and foreign countries.
C. [Company] shall be the sole judge as to whether the Inventions are related to or useful in connection with any aspect of the business of [Company] as earned on or contemplated at the time the Invention is made and as to whether patent applications should be filed in the United States or in foreign countries.
D. [Company] shall have the option of taking a permanent, royalty-free license to manufacture, use, and sell any of the Inventions conceived or discovered by Employee during the course of Employee's employment with [Company], or within six (6) months thereafter, that are not assigned to [Company] under paragraph B. of this Agreement.
A. Employee shall promptly and fully disclose in writing to [Company] any inventions, improvements, discoveries, operating techniques, or "know-how", whether patentable or not (hereinafter referred to as "Inventions"), conceived or discovered by Employee, either solely or jointly with others, during the course of Employee's employment with [Company], or within six (6) months thereafter.
B. Employee shall, on the request of [Company], and hereby does, assign to [Company] all of Employee's right, title and interest in any of the Inventions which relate to, or are useful in connection with, any aspect of the business of [Company], as carried on or contemplated at the time the Invention is made, whether or not Employee's duties are directly related thereto. [Company] shall be the sole and absolute owner of any of the Inventions so assigned. Employee shall perform any further acts or execute any papers, at the expense of [Company], which it may consider necessary to secure for [Company] or its successors or assigns any and all rights relating to the Inventions, including patents in the United States and foreign countries.
C. [Company] shall be the sole judge as to whether the Inventions are related to or useful in connection with any aspect of the business of [Company] as earned on or contemplated at the time the Invention is made and as to whether patent applications should be filed in the United States or in foreign countries.
D. [Company] shall have the option of taking a permanent, royalty-free license to manufacture, use, and sell any of the Inventions conceived or discovered by Employee during the course of Employee's employment with [Company], or within six (6) months thereafter, that are not assigned to [Company] under paragraph B. of this Agreement.
The answer is going to vary from state-to-state and presumably from country to country. California, for example, has laws that greatly reduce the effect of non-compete agreements, but many other states do not. Furthermore, the question of whether they can insist that you sign a new agreement as a condition of continued employment will depend on whether you are in an "at will" jurisdiction or not.
One of the companies I used to work for tried to get me to sign an "updated" contract.
I told them, "I already have a contract and I'm happy with it. There are termination measures in the contract, but I don't think any of the issues apply (gross incompetance, etc)."
Legal freaked out. They told me I must sign the new contract or else my employment would end. I said, "The contract I am working under has no expiration date and I don't see any provisions for updating it. As I said, I'm happy with this contract, so unless you offer me large concessions I don't really feel it's in my best interest to sign another one".
Legal freaked out again. They said, "Everyone has signed this contract. You are the last person. You must sign it."
I asked, "Are you saying that you will fire me if I don't sign this contract?"
"Well, no."
"Good because I like the old contract better."
End of story. Never heard from them again.
I had the same type of agreement when I was at MSI. When the workers comp. insurance turned me down -- claiming that the injury was not solely from work, I used that agreement to argue that all computer related work belongs to my employer, therefore work related.
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You must not write on the tubes much. Newsflash: if you go to a site that has 95%+ male readership and are surprised when people assume you're male when you have (at best) an ambiguous handle then... Well, I have nothing. You probably get surprised easily. Boo. Did that surprise you? I expect it did.
I work for nvidia. My employment contract said:
a) Any inventions I invent on my own time with my own equipment are mine.
b) Any inventions I invent on their time and/or with their equipment are theirs.
c) I can leave nvidia whenever I want (duh) and go work for whomever I want, on whatever project I want.
All they ask is that if I'm thinking about leaving, I let them know so they can see if they can make the reason I want to leave go away.
You can have my job when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers.
I currently have no clever signature witicism to add here.
Or a better state...
In Ontario, this might be construed as "constructive dismissal". From what I've experienced here, signing any employment contracts is a bad idea. Without an employment contract, you'd be covered by common-law, which is generally favourable to the employee regarding severance amounts, etc. Employment contracts usually replace all that with explicit terms that favour the employer.
IMHO, you'd have to be NUTS to work as an employee in high tech outside of government or unionized employers. Ontario's labour laws are terrible for "technology professionals". As unemployment rates are very low, and there is plenty of unfulfilled demand for skills, you're far better off subcontracting, where the legal relationship is between corporate peers. Some of the rights you retain as a subcontractor include:
- pay by the hour, if you so arrange. No unpaid OT.
- the right to conduct business with other clients
normal employer rights that are NOT applicable in contracting:
- the right to supervise and direct
- the right to set hours of work (duration and timing)
- exclusivity to all the employee's production, intellectual or otherwise, regardless of whether the efforts were during paid working hours.
There is a lot more variation and flexibility in terms, and you still have to keep your clients happy - i.e. they won't be happy if you openly compete against them and work 3h/week, and your contract will be cancelled.
If you are a non-unionized employee, remember, the only real power you have is to quit.
"Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes." --Henry David Thoreau