In any business, it is essential to protect your intellectual property and other resources from loss or theft. One of the most common ways that business owners attempt to protect their resources, especially when employees leave, is through non-compete agreements. However, sometimes employees are wary of signing these agreements. It may also be costly to enforce strict non-compete agreements. One potential alternative to a traditional non-compete agreement is a non-solicitation agreement.
According to Forbes, you may be able to use a non-solicitation agreement along with other legal contracts to simultaneously protect your intellectual property and company resources without losing your employees’ trust or goodwill. In general, a non-solicitation agreement is less restrictive than a non-compete agreement. The main differences between a non-solicitation and a non-compete agreement are in the limitations. Whereas a non-compete agreement forbids employees from leaving your company to start a competing business, a non-solicitation agreement simply prevents employees from taking company assets when they leave. These assets could include other employees, vendors and customers: company resources that are vital to your business’ success.
A well-written non-solicitation agreement may help protect your company from losing several of your best employees at the same time if one decides to leave and encourages others to do so as well. You may also use legal agreements to prevent employees from taking your proprietary information and other IP for use in their competing businesses. With a comprehensive non-solicitation agreement, you may protect contracts with existing vendors and customers and prevent your former employees from “poaching” them. Forbes states that some employees may view non-solicitation agreements more positively than traditional non-compete agreements.
