Business owners and executives in North Carolina logically need and want to protect their confidential information and competitive advantages to ensure their companies have the best opportunities to succeed and thrive. Many tools and strategies offer ways to do this and one is the non-compete agreement. As explained by Young Upstarts, a non-compete agreement is a contract commonly used by companies to prevent employees from defecting to a competitive company and using sensitive information against the original employer.
The concept of non-compete agreements makes a lot of sense from the business perspective. A person’s employment after leaving a specific company may be restricted in order to protect the interests of the first company. The restrictions placed on employees generally include a geographical range, a time duration and potentially even a scope of work.
According to Forbes, a good non-compete agreement includes some elements similar to that of a nondisclosure agreement in that the contract should safeguard company sensitive information from being shared externally. Such information subject to protection may include sales and marketing strategies, product development or design information, financial data and more.
The ability to enforce a non-compete agreement may be influenced by a variety of factors, including the level of reasonableness attributed to the original agreement. An agreement designed to last five years, for example, may not be considered reasonable whereas a contract spanning 12 months may be. Companies should be judicious about which employees they require to sign non-compete agreements as well. Persons working in capacities where they have regular access to critical information should be the target for these types of contracts.
