Noncompetes are a trade. Companies provide employees with access to resources, client lists, and trade secrets. They want to ensure that rolodexes aren't shopped and product plans aren't bootlegged.
Isn't that an NDA?
I see non-competes as nothing but attempts to reduce competition. Except that is exactly how markets are NOT supposed to work. You're supposed to out-compete, not simply reduce competition.
No. A sales account manager at AcmeTron can dump the entire CRM database, walk it over to WidgetCorp, and run all those same accounts for them without ever once violating an NDA.
Frankly, and I hope respectfully, if you can't see the distinctions here, I'm not sure why you'd expect anyone to take your opinions about noncompetes seriously. You might also consider wording your ideas better: "noncompetes are nothing but attempts to reduce competition", for instance, might not be your best rhetorical play.
I'm pretty ambivalent about noncompetes. They've hurt me more than they've helped me, both as employee and (in concert with) employers. But I don't like shoddy arguments.
I'm not a salesman so I wouldn't know but it seems to me A sales account manager at AcmeTron can dump the entire CRM database, walk it over to WidgetCorp, and run all those same accounts for them without ever once violating an NDA. is the very definition of why you need NDAs.
But again maybe I'm looking at this from an engineer's perspective and it's different for sales.
In either case, I don't think we'll change each others minds here on the Internet.
In a consulting agreement, you may find "Non-use" terms along with "Non-disclosure" terms in the IP language; technically, this would prevent a consultant from stealing the sales rolodex and then using it to contact customers.
Otherwise, you violate an NDA by disclosing to someone not bound under the same NDA actual confidential information. Nothing prevents you from using confidential information to compete "unfairly" with your employer.
You can add whatever terms you'd like to whatever you call a "confidentiality" or IP agreement, but now you're on a slippery slope that leads to de facto noncompetes.
Comments
Noncompetes are a trade. Companies provide employees with access to resources, client lists, and trade secrets. They want to ensure that rolodexes aren't shopped and product plans aren't bootlegged.
Isn't that an NDA?
I see non-competes as nothing but attempts to reduce competition. Except that is exactly how markets are NOT supposed to work. You're supposed to out-compete, not simply reduce competition.
No. A sales account manager at AcmeTron can dump the entire CRM database, walk it over to WidgetCorp, and run all those same accounts for them without ever once violating an NDA.
Frankly, and I hope respectfully, if you can't see the distinctions here, I'm not sure why you'd expect anyone to take your opinions about noncompetes seriously. You might also consider wording your ideas better: "noncompetes are nothing but attempts to reduce competition", for instance, might not be your best rhetorical play.
I'm pretty ambivalent about noncompetes. They've hurt me more than they've helped me, both as employee and (in concert with) employers. But I don't like shoddy arguments.
I'm not a salesman so I wouldn't know but it seems to me A sales account manager at AcmeTron can dump the entire CRM database, walk it over to WidgetCorp, and run all those same accounts for them without ever once violating an NDA. is the very definition of why you need NDAs.
But again maybe I'm looking at this from an engineer's perspective and it's different for sales.
In either case, I don't think we'll change each others minds here on the Internet.
In a consulting agreement, you may find "Non-use" terms along with "Non-disclosure" terms in the IP language; technically, this would prevent a consultant from stealing the sales rolodex and then using it to contact customers.
Otherwise, you violate an NDA by disclosing to someone not bound under the same NDA actual confidential information. Nothing prevents you from using confidential information to compete "unfairly" with your employer.
You can add whatever terms you'd like to whatever you call a "confidentiality" or IP agreement, but now you're on a slippery slope that leads to de facto noncompetes.