If you have ever wondered whether you can use your innovative ideas for commercial purposes when you are employed for someone else- the answer is “no”- not if you have non compete clauses in your employment agreement.
What is a non compete clause?
According to wikipedia, ” A non-compete clause, or covenant not to compete (CNC), is a term used in contract law under which one party (usually an employee) agrees to not pursue a similar profession or trade in competition against another party (usually the employer). “
Bijan Sabet of Spark Capital has authored a guest column in GigaOm yesterday and it is on how non compete clauses could actually be an impediment to innovation getting to the market. The article mentions that in the state of california you cannot enforce non compete clauses but there are other states (probably majority of them) in the US where it is enforced.
If you are interested, check out this new blog on ‘Alliance for Open Competition‘ written on similar lines as this guest article in GigaOm.
There may be different ways to implement this, one such option is suggested in the article itself. I think it is a good point to ponder upon, NOT from the company perspective or from an individual innovator’s perspective but PURELY from the perspective of innovation getting out there rather than being tied down and not allowed to emerge due to the self interest of the employer in increasing his company’s face value by exploiting and consolidating the intellectual property of his employees.
I wonder what would have happened to the fundamental innovations more than decades or even a century ago, if the people who invented it were bound by non compete clauses as is prevalent in today’s scenario!!!.
For the informative part of it, if you are a budding innovator, you just might want to revisit the employer agreement that you agreed to by signing on the dotted line.. You never know what you agreed to in your moment of ecstasy at having secured a great job!!!
Tags: Innovation, Non compete, Open Competition
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