St. Louis patent attorney Bryan Wheelock and Dallas patent attorney Chris Cauble recently authored an article for the Dallas Business Journal that provides a useful outline for assessing a company’s employee agreements.

The article covers the key areas that an employee agreement should include:

• Confidentiality
• Inventions
• Employee Conduct
• Standard Provisions

Companies should also be aware of state-specific intellectual property constraints or provisions, such as the enforceability of non-compete clauses or the transfer of invention ownership. Depending on the company’s home state, additional notices may need to be included in each employee agreement.

While these employee agreements cannot ensure that everything runs smoothly, they do provide the best grounds to enforce a company’s rights should any violations occur. Companies should keep copies of signed employee agreements in a safe place, preferably in hardcopy and digital form. Cauble and Wheelock further recommend the periodic review of agreement templates in order to account for changes in the law or the addition of new safeguards that can protect the company’s intellectual property.

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