Elie Mystal, writing for Above the Law, discusses some top factors to remember when dealing with a sexual predator who has signed you to a non-disclosure agreement.

Among those factors are: the need for the predator to show actual injury, the information disclosed has to be secret and confidential, courts will consider public policy, and courts will consider unequal bargaining power.

“If you’ve signed a non-disclosure agreement, it’s a risk to violate it. You might get sued, you might be forced to pay back some money,” she warns. “Or you might set liberating case law that allows more of these claims to come forward.”

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The enforceability of a confidentiality covenant in an employment agreement without time or geographical limitations may turn, at least in part, on how the information that may not be disclosed is defined, writes Paul E. Freehling in Seyfarth Shaw‘s Trading Secrets blog.

He describes a case involving a salesman for a medical device manufacturer, Orthofix, Inc. v. Hunter. The salesman signed a confidentiality covenant at the time he was hired, but years later he resigned and went to work for a competitor. The former employer sued him, but, because the covenant had neither temporal nor geographic limitations, the trial court invalidated the covenant and dismissed the breach of contract claim.  The appellate court reversed, holding that no such limits are required for a confidentiality agreement.

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