Time to Revisit Your Confidentiality Settlement

As you certainly know by now, non-compete and non-solicit agreements, and associated provisions in settlement or different sorts of agreements, shall be much more closely scrutinized in California in 2024.  So sufficient about what you may’t do.  This weblog will tackle three issues a California employer can nonetheless do to guard itself. 

Revisit Your Confidentiality Settlement

First, you may have an efficient Confidentiality (or Non-Disclosure) Settlement that protects your organization’s confidential, proprietary, and commerce secret data.  Nevertheless, for such an settlement to be efficient, it needs to be clear about what you search to guard.  And to be sincere, lots of the Confidentiality Agreements I see should not.  Usually a enterprise will use boilerplate language that was used at one other enterprise or simply taken from the Web.  Large mistake.  In case your staff can not clearly perceive what data you propose to maintain confidential, then there isn’t a manner your attorneys are going to have the ability to successfully defend it.

An efficient confidentiality settlement will particularly set forth the knowledge the corporate needs to guard, akin to its shopper checklist, buyer specs, a pc program, a coverage guide, personnel or vendor contact data, and so on.  If it isn’t clear to your staff what data is protected beneath your settlement, then it received’t be clear to a court docket both.

Take Steps Internally to Shield Confidential Data

Second, be sure that to take steps to guard your confidential data.  For instance, is it on the corporate’s intranet or doc administration system for everybody to see and obtain?  If that’s the case, password defend it. Or higher but, use your expertise to restrict who has entry to it (and who can ahead or copy it). Oh, and sure, you may truly mark it confidential.  

Additionally guarantee your insurance policies persistently instruct staff to safeguard confidential data. Remind them that their work emails and units should not non-public, and they need to not count on privateness on any work offered expertise, machine, or system.   

Responsibility of Loyalty

Third, there may be nonetheless an obligation of loyalty, and you’ll have a non-compete or non-disclosure obligation throughout employment.  This might assist in case your staff are planning to steal your confidential supplies or raid your staff whereas nonetheless employed.  Any such actions in opposition to your enterprise whereas employed might very effectively be actionable in a breach of confidentiality case.

Bottomline, all hope isn’t misplaced.  There are nonetheless efficient (and comparatively easy) steps that California employers can take to guard themselves in 2024 and past.