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Employee Restrictive Covenant Agreement

Cover Terms

The terms below are incorporated into and form part of this agreement.

Employer[Legal name of the entity that employs the employee]
Employee[Full legal name of the employee]
Employee Title / Position
Effective Date[Effective date of this agreement — the date the last party signs. It anchors the duration presumptions stated in Cover Terms.]
Governing LawUtah
Confidentiality
Trade Secrets DurationPerpetual
Other Confidential Information Duration24 months
Employee Non-Solicitation
Duration24 months
Market benchmark (based on 76 companies)HideShow
TermFrequency
12 months44.7%
Selected default24 months34.9%
18 months11.2%
Why this selected default?

Why is this the selected default?

24 months matches the modal employee non-solicit term observed in benchmarked, publicly-filed employee agreements; 12 months is the common lighter alternative. The Act sets no express duration presumption for the no-hire category, so the uniquely-essential scope limit does the primary category work; counsel should size the term to the workforce interest actually protected.

Covered Employee Period12 months
Customer Non-Solicitation
Duration12 months
State-law basis 12 months

Reference only — not part of this agreement.

12 months sits well inside the presumptively reasonable window for a current-customer non-solicit: eighteen months, or for as long as post-separation consideration is paid, whichever is greater. Counsel may extend toward eighteen months, or longer while post-separation consideration is paid, where the interest supports it.

Covered Customer Period12 months
Non-Disparagement
Duration24 months

Standard Terms

1. Defined Terms

“Competitive Business” means the business activities described in Cover Terms under Competitive Business, limited to providing a product, process, or service that is similar to Employer's product, process, or service.

“Confidential Information” means non-public information relating to Employer's business, including trade secrets, customer lists, pricing, business processes, technical data, and strategic plans, but excluding information that becomes public through no fault of Employee and excluding Employee's general skill, knowledge, and experience.

“Covered Customers” means customers, vendors, referral sources, and business partners with whom Employee had material contact or for whom Employee had responsibility during the 12 months before termination of employment.

“Covered Employees” means employees with whom Employee worked or whom Employee managed during the 12 months before termination of employment.

“Passive Public Holdings” means ownership of securities of a publicly traded company representing less than five percent of any class of such company's securities, and interests in diversified mutual funds, index funds, and exchange-traded funds that may hold securities of a Competitive Business.

“Protected Interests” means Employer's Confidential Information and Trade Secrets, its goodwill, and any extraordinary training Employer provided to Employee.

“Restricted Period” means the duration specified in Cover Terms for each covenant, beginning on the day on which Employee is no longer employed by Employer for any reason. For the non-competition covenant, the Restricted Period may not exceed one year from that day.

“Restricted Territory” means the geographic area described in Cover Terms under Restricted Territory.

“Solicit” means to directly or indirectly contact, approach, induce, or encourage any person or entity for the purpose of diverting business away from Employer, but does not include responding to general advertisements or unsolicited inquiries not initiated by Employee.

“Trade Secrets” has the meaning given in the Utah Uniform Trade Secrets Act: information that derives independent economic value from not being generally known or readily ascertainable and that is the subject of efforts reasonable under the circumstances to maintain its secrecy.

2. Recitals and Protected Interests

Employer and Employee acknowledge that each restrictive covenant in this agreement is carefully limited to protect one or more of Employer's Protected Interests and not to shield Employer from ordinary competition. To the extent any covenant is a non-compete, the parties intend it to be supported by consideration, negotiated in good faith, no broader than necessary to protect the goodwill of the business, and reasonable in its restrictions as to time and area.

Drafting Note The four-part reasonableness test

A Utah non-compete stands or falls on the four-part common-law reasonableness test, not on the one-year cap alone: the Post-Employment Restrictions Act supplements rather than replaces the common law, so a covenant that fits inside the cap is still unenforceable where it lacks consideration, was negotiated in bad faith, protects no goodwill, or reaches further in time or area than the business needs . A covenant confined to the employer's legitimate interests — goodwill, confidential information, or extraordinary training — survives where one that reaches an employee's ordinary skills or ordinary competition does not . Consideration is the loose prong, satisfied by an offer of employment or continued at-will employment, but the good-faith prong is live: a covenant extracted through a quick hire-and-fire used solely to bind a worker to a long restraint is exposed on that ground .

3. Timing, Consideration, and Right to Consult Counsel

This agreement is effective as of the Effective Date listed in Cover Terms. Employer and Employee agree that the offer of employment, including continued at-will employment, is sufficient consideration for the restrictive covenants. Employer has given Employee a genuine opportunity to review this agreement and to consult with an attorney before signing.

4. Confidential Information and Trade Secret Protection

Employee must treat all Confidential Information as strictly confidential. Employee must not use or disclose Confidential Information except as required to perform authorized job duties or with Employer's prior written consent. Employee's obligations regarding trade secrets continue in perpetuity, for as long as the information remains a trade secret. Employee's obligations regarding other Confidential Information continue for the period specified in Cover Terms.

Drafting Note Confidentiality scope

Confidentiality and trade-secret protections hold only where they are tied to actual secret information and reasonable secrecy efforts. A definition that sweeps in ordinary know-how does not qualify as a trade secret, and a confidentiality clause that functions as a work ban can be recharacterized as a non-compete and pulled back under the one-year cap .

5. Permitted Disclosures and Protected Conduct

Nothing in this agreement prohibits Employee from: (a) reporting possible violations of law to any government agency, including the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or any other federal, state, or local agency; (b) making disclosures protected under whistleblower provisions of any law; (c) discussing wages, hours, or other terms and conditions of employment as protected by applicable law; (d) testifying truthfully in legal proceedings or making any disclosure required by law, court order, or a valid government request; or (e) filing a sealed complaint in court using Confidential Information without liability. Pursuant to the Defend Trade Secrets Act (18 U.S.C. section 1833(b)), Employee may not be held criminally or civilly liable for disclosing a trade secret in confidence to a government official or attorney solely for the purpose of reporting or investigating a suspected violation of law, or in a sealed court filing.

6. Return, Deletion, and Certification of Company Property

Upon termination of employment, Employee must promptly return to Employer all documents, devices, files, credentials, and other materials containing or relating to Confidential Information. Where permitted, Employee must permanently delete electronic copies of Confidential Information from personal devices and accounts. Employee must certify compliance with this section in writing upon Employer's request.

7. Non-Solicitation of Employees

During the Restricted Period, Employee must not Solicit, recruit, hire, or attempt to hire any Covered Employee. This restriction does not prohibit Employee from providing a professional reference upon request or from hiring a person who responds to a general advertisement not directed specifically at Employer's employees. This covenant is drawn no broader than necessary to protect Employer's Protected Interests.

8. Non-Solicitation of Customers, Vendors, Referral Sources, and Business Partners

During the Restricted Period, Employee must not Solicit the business of any Covered Customer. This covenant is limited to customers, vendors, referral sources, and business partners the Employee actually served during the stated lookback. This covenant does not restrict Employee from serving a Covered Customer who first approaches Employee without any solicitation by Employee.

9. Non-Disparagement

During the Restricted Period specified in Cover Terms for Non-Disparagement, Employee must not make statements that are intended to or reasonably likely to disparage Employer, its officers, directors, employees, products, or services. This section does not restrict Employee from making truthful statements in legal proceedings, providing truthful testimony, making disclosures to government agencies, or exercising rights protected by law.

10. Utah Limits and Exclusions

The Restricted Period for a post-employment non-compete may not exceed one year after Employee's employment ends. The one-year cap does not apply to a covenant in a reasonable severance agreement mutually and freely agreed upon in good faith at or after the time of termination, or to a covenant arising out of the sale of a business where Employee receives value related to the sale. Where Employer is a broadcasting company and Employee is an exempt broadcasting employee, any non-compete applies only if it sits within a written employment contract of reasonable duration and only where Employer terminates Employee for cause or Employee breaches the contract. A non-compete does not apply to a healthcare worker or to a veterinarian who holds less than a five percent ownership interest in Employer. No covenant prevents a healthcare worker from informing a patient of the worker's current or future place of employment.

Drafting Note Restricted period

A covenant drafted for eighteen months or two years is not trimmed to one year by a Utah court; the statute makes the over-length covenant void, and an attempt to enforce it exposes the employer to the statute's fee-shifting penalty. A covenant sized to one year or less from the outset is the one that survives .

Drafting Note De facto non-competes

Label is not protection. A nonsolicitation or confidentiality clause drafted so broadly that it effectively blocks the employee from working in the field invites a court to treat it as a de facto non-compete, reimposing the one-year cap and the fee-shifting exposure .

Drafting Note The entered-into date and the 2026 bans

The Post-Employment Restrictions Act attaches by the date an agreement is entered, so a covenant re-executed through a renewal or amendment falls under the regime in force on the new date, including the healthcare-worker and veterinarian non-compete bans for agreements entered on or after May 6, 2026 . A non-compete with a healthcare worker that was valid when first signed becomes a prohibited healthcare non-compete once it is re-signed on or after that date, and a veterinarian non-compete is void from that date unless the veterinarian holds at least a 5% ownership interest .

11. No Conflicting Obligations

Employee represents that performing duties for Employer and complying with this agreement does not conflict with any prior agreement, court order, or legal obligation binding on Employee. Employee must promptly disclose to Employer any potential conflict that arises during employment.

12. Notice to Future Employers and Other Third Parties

Employer may disclose the existence and terms of this agreement to any prospective employer or business associate of Employee if Employer has a reasonable belief that Employee may breach this agreement, and only as to a covenant Employer reasonably believes is enforceable. Employee consents to this disclosure.

13. Tolling During Breach

If Employee breaches a nonsolicitation, confidentiality, or non-disparagement covenant in this agreement, the Restricted Period for that covenant is extended by one day for each day of the breach, so that the full duration of the restriction runs from the date the breach ends. This tolling does not apply to the non-competition covenant, which expires no later than one year after the day Employee's employment ends regardless of any breach, and no extension may push it past that date.

Drafting Note Tolling

A tolling or extension-on-breach clause that keeps a Utah non-compete alive past the one-year mark is a concrete void risk, not a safe equitable backstop. The statute fixes the period at one year from separation and voids longer covenants, so an extension that pushes the non-compete past that point exposes the whole covenant .

14. Remedies

Employee acknowledges that a breach of this agreement may cause Employer irreparable harm for which money damages would be inadequate. Employer may seek injunctive or other equitable relief in addition to any other remedies available at law, including an injunction against actual or threatened misappropriation of trade secrets under the Utah Uniform Trade Secrets Act. Any fee-shifting between the parties is mutual and prevailing-party based.

Drafting Note Employer fee exposure on failed enforcement

Utah's fee-shifting runs one direction only: an employer that seeks arbitration or files suit to enforce a non-compete, healthcare non-compete, nondisclosure clause, or nonsolicitation agreement later found unenforceable is liable for the employee's arbitration costs, attorney fees and court costs, and actual damages, whether or not the agreement says anything about fees . A one-way, employer-favoring fee clause cannot contract around that exposure, and escalating from a notice letter to an enforcement action on a covenant that turns out to be invalid is what triggers it; a mutual, prevailing-party fee provision sits alongside the statutory baseline rather than purporting to displace it .

15. Survival and Expiration of Each Covenant

Each restrictive covenant in this agreement survives the termination of Employee's employment for the Restricted Period specified in Cover Terms, with each covenant's clock running independently. Obligations under the Confidential Information and Trade Secret Protection section survive for the Trade Secrets Duration specified in Cover Terms to the extent they relate to trade secrets, and for the Other Confidential Information Duration specified in Cover Terms for other Confidential Information. The non-competition covenant expires no later than one year after the day Employee's employment ends. All other provisions survive to the extent necessary to enforce rights that arose during employment.

16. Assignment and Successors

Employee may not assign this agreement or any rights or obligations under it. Employer may assign this agreement to any affiliate, successor, or acquirer of all or substantially all of Employer's business or assets. Any assignee takes each covenant subject to its existing duration and other limitations. This agreement is binding on and inures to the benefit of the parties and their respective heirs, successors, and permitted assigns.

17. Governing Law, Venue, and Dispute Process

For an Employee based in Utah, this agreement is governed by Utah law, and disputes will be resolved in Utah courts, subject to non-waivable rights under applicable law.

18. Entire Agreement, Amendment, Waiver, and Electronic Signatures

This agreement constitutes the entire agreement between the parties regarding its subject matter and supersedes all prior agreements, understandings, and negotiations on this subject. This agreement may be amended only in writing signed by both parties. A party's failure to enforce any provision does not waive that party's right to enforce it later. This agreement may be executed in counterparts, including by electronic signature, each of which is an original.

Signatures

By signing this agreement, each party acknowledges and agrees to the restrictive covenant obligations above. Employee confirms having read and understood each provision, including the Cover Terms.

Employer

Employer: [Legal name of the entity that employs the employee]

Signature:

Signatory Name: [Full name of the authorized signatory signing for the employer]

Title: [Title of the authorized signatory signing for the employer]

Date:

Employee

Signature:

Print Name: [Full legal name of the employee]

Date:

Adapted from OpenAgreements Wyoming and Florida restrictive covenant templates. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.