PROTECTION OF CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION Minnesota law protects employers‘ confidential information and trade secrets in several ways. First, an employee has a generally recognized duty of loyalty to not disclose trade secrets or proprietary information of the employer. Second, the statutory Uniform Trade Secrets Act, adopted by Minnesota, prohibits misappropriation of trade secrets. And third, employers may require employees to execute nondisclosure agreements to prevent release of trade secrets or confidential information during or after their employment. To be protected as a trade secret under the Uniform Trade Secrets Act, the information must not be generally known or readily ascertainable by the general public, it must provide economic value to the employer, and the employer must make reasonable efforts to maintain its secrecy. Confidentiality agreements must be supported by “adequate consideration,” i.e., the employee must be given something of value in exchange for the promise not to disclose the information. Examples of adequate consideration vary from case to case but might include the initial hiring of the employee in exchange for the agreement, promotions, salary increases or cash payments. Continued employment, without more, generally is not recognized as adequate consideration to support a confidentiality agreement. ASSIGNMENT OF PATENTS AND INVENTIONS An employer may require an employee, as a condition of employment, to assign the employee‘s rights in certain inventions to the employer. Under state law, such an assignment must exclude inventions for which no equipment, supplies, facilities or trade secret information of the employer were used, and which were developed entirely on the employee’s own time, and which do not relate directly to the employer’s business or its actual or demonstrably anticipated research or development, or which do not result from any work performed by the employee for the employer.
LABOR STANDARDS
GENERAL INFORMATION Wages, overtime pay and recordkeeping requirements are regulated at the federal level by the Fair Labor Standards Act, 29 USC § 201 et seq .; 29 CFR parts 510 to 794 and at the state level by the Minnesota Fair Labor Standards Act, Minn. Stat. Chapter 177. Each act specifies the employers and employees to which it applies, but where the Minnesota act and the federal act are different, the law providing more protection for the employee or setting the higher standard applies. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) is administered by the Wage and Hour Division (WHD) of the U.S. Department of Labor. The Minnesota Fair Labor Standards Act is administered by the Labor Standards Division of the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry (DLI). This section discusses provisions of the federal act and the Minnesota act pertaining to persons covered, minimum wage and overtime requirements, prevailing wage requirements, and wage records.
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