Attorney Yasir Billoo Explains NDA Law (Video) 38
Yasir Billoo, an attorney with Golden & Grimes in Miami, Florida, is licensed to practice law in both Florida and California, and works heavily in the areas of business/commercial law, employment and labor, and civil appeals. Yasir also has a business-oriented blog titled Small Business Law.
In this Slashdot video interview hosted by Timothy Lord, Yasir gives what is essentially a primer on the law behind Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) and how they differ from Non-Competes. Sooner or later you're going to encounter -- or even write -- an NDA, and you'd better know the law behind what you're doing. Naturally, today's interview isn't specific legal advice about a particular situation. If you want that, you need to hire a lawyer to advise you. But Yasir (a long-time Slashdot reader. BTW) has shared enough knowledge in this interview that it will help you deal with many NDA situations on your own, and how to tell when you really should have a lawyer by your side.
In this Slashdot video interview hosted by Timothy Lord, Yasir gives what is essentially a primer on the law behind Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) and how they differ from Non-Competes. Sooner or later you're going to encounter -- or even write -- an NDA, and you'd better know the law behind what you're doing. Naturally, today's interview isn't specific legal advice about a particular situation. If you want that, you need to hire a lawyer to advise you. But Yasir (a long-time Slashdot reader. BTW) has shared enough knowledge in this interview that it will help you deal with many NDA situations on your own, and how to tell when you really should have a lawyer by your side.
As long as I don't have to sign an NDA (Score:5, Funny)
How to make Slashdot really angry (Score:1)
A video interview of Bennett Haselton conducted by Bennett Haselton.
Re:Who was forced to sign an NDA? (Score:5, Informative)
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I have 6 hours before I forfeit a very nice severance from a failing company that nobody or I care about their tech or hurting them.
Just because after seven hard years of work and signing a few questionably things this silly thing they want me to sign probably requires a lawyer and it scares me too much for a few paychecks.
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I was. I mean, I didn't have to sign it but i'd not have got the job otherwise. Doesn't mean you agree with it. Hell, doesn't mean you're going to obey it, but all that comes later.
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Then you weren't willing to walk away from it. Signing an agreement you have no intention of keeping can be a recipe for a lot of expense later on.
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Simply write 'I don't agree' on the signature line and hand it back to the HR drone. They never check.
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It was a job programming games in a company which did Sega Megadrive games. They guarded the docs pretty zealously (ie each page had the company name written, by hand, over it). Couldn't talk about how it worked, what I was doing, how many games Sega had allowed us to publish that year etc etc. (Another job was similar except it was for some IBM tool or other).
I had no intention to breach the contracts, but at the same time I wasn't going to let the fear of what might happen should I subsequently work fo
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The bastards saved you a bunch of time. Seriously, any time you spend at such a company is wasted.
You didn't have a case.
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I sure wish I could read that agreement before I invest time interviewing. At ATTWS, they wanted verbal acceptance before they would disclose the paperwork. Nevermind that I cannot put a value on an offer without having those details. So I didn't.
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Me for one. I refused until the "Sign it or Mcdonalds is hiring" speech.
Were you interviewing to be a fry cook? Because that's an incredibly insulting thing to say otherwise.
Nobody insults someone they really want to hire.
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What kind of retirement plan doesn't have you vested after 20 years?
I'm calling BS. SJW posting fiction to support his narrative.
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Doesn't match up with your previous story. They were going to fire you and take you retirement...
Still calling BS.
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You also claim that breach of contract is how they would take your retirement. How is not signing a new NDA a breach?
You are making things up and got called on it. Just go away and pretend this never happened.
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Thanks, but please improve future audio (Score:2, Informative)
I appreciate the effort, but rule #1 for video is to get the audio right. You can watch a bad video, but bad sound can make an otherwise good video nearly unwatchable. The interviewer's use of an iPhone headset is far from optimum.
NDA or Assignment of Inventions (Score:5, Interesting)
The NDAs that I've signed as function of interviewing for a job, e.g., typically only stipulate that I can't disclose anything that I learn about the companies intellectual property over the course of the interviewing process.
Some of the companies I've been employed by have required me to sign an Assignment of Inventions. Some were fairly broad, asserting that _any_ idea I had, on the clock or off, belonged to the company. Others were less broad.
And while IANAL, I do remember from the business law courses that I took during my undergrad studies that contracts are not enforceable when there's a great large difference in the bargaining power of the two parties. When you have a potential employer holding a job over your head telling you to sign or else, that's not an agreement between equals. I can't predict how any court is going to rule, but right off the bat I'd be willing to bet that if you were required to sign an overly broad Assignment of Inventions in order to get the job, there's a fair chance that it might not be enforceable. As always, consult an attorney.
Assignment of Inventions (Score:1)
In California (an employee friendly state) there are limitations on assignments. An agreement to assign ALL inventions won't work, and even a "anything in the company's line of business" won't fly if it's a large company with lots of unrelated activities. A "anything related to what we do at this facility" is probably legal. And, bear in mind that if you are an exempt employee (e.g. don't get overtime for more than 40 hrs/week), you are never "off the clock" unless there is a specific agreement to the con
Useful Slashdot video? No way... (Score:3)
Wow, a Slashdot video that I actually found useful, interesting, relevant to the site, and not a slashvertisement. A very pleasant surprise, and thanks to Yasir for his time and insight.
Timothy, though... c'mon, man... pay a few bucks for a backdrop and a reasonable microphone and step up the game a little, rather than looking like a teenager hiding from your parents in your bedroom... even a few bucks for a laptop stand or a cheap video camera so we don't get the camera-is-sitting-on-my-desk-nasal-shot. Some reasonable lighting, etc., is step two. It's not hard.
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Given the number of people who read Slashdot using old browsers that dont do HTML5 video (like all those people stuck at work on Intercrap Explorer 6) Flash seems like the better choice here.
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Division by 0 error at 'Flash seems like the better choice".
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