The need to maintain business confidential information within the company are increasing in today’s knowledge-based society. Today, trade secrets are an asset for entrepreneurs and important for competitiveness. These secrets are sometimes provided to the employees and the more secrets spread, the more vulnerable the employer becomes. To prevent trade secrets from being disclosed there is a law about confidential information and competition clauses could be entered in the employment contracts. Nevertheless, the need to protect confidential information must be compared to the right of workers to freely use their skills. This paper aims to highlight the legal situation and the legal balance between both parts within the law of confidential information and competition clauses on the basis of a legal science method. It also aims to highlight the use of non-compete agreements from a gender perspective. The purpose of the paper has led to the following research questions; How can the legal framework of trade secrets and compete clauses be understood from an employer and employee perspective and what are the consequences of it? From a gender perspective, what consequences does the balance between the employer’s need to protect confidential information and the employees’ need to be competitive on the labor market after an employment have? The paper shows that there are weaknesses in the law of confidential information through the employer’s perspective and the law does not stall the employees’ competitiveness. The non-compete agreements however, may jeopardize the movement of the employees and are often seen as unfair in Swedish court. However, the problem is that the freedom of enter contracts prevails and the agreements are valid until an arbitration or court shows otherwise. The study indicates that it is mostly men that are subject to compete clauses, which can lead to improvement of women’s position in the labor market.

<p> </p><p>This essay aim to clear the regulations that adjusts the use of non-compete clauses in contracts of employement. The historical developement shows tendencies that more employees have contracts that includes non-compete clauses. This developement does not always correspond with what is allowed concerning these clauses. Non-compete clauses is adjusted by the regulations in the collective agreement known as the agreement of 1969. The agreement has also been accepted outside its regular field of application. Apart from the just mentioned agreement, unreasonable conditions of contracts kan be adapted to what is fair accordning to the swedish constitution of agreements. The paragraphs in question is the 36 and the 38 §§, that adjusts when you can shift the conditions. The 38 § is more applyable when it comes to conditions about non-compete clauses. The use of non-compete clauses is also regulated by practice in the court of law, the labour court. Many of the regulations are unspecified in their design. It is possible that these unspecified concepts are essential to maintain the possibility of applying the concepts to a larger amount of cases. The metaphysical concepts of the jurisprudence has been criticized several times during the historical developement, for example by the upholders of the positivistic Uppsala school of philosophy (the Scandinavian legal realism). The facts remains that because of its open device of concepts, the jurisprudence becomes dynamic and useable in a lot more contexts.</p><p> </p>

This essay aim to clear the regulations that adjusts the use of non-compete clauses in contracts of employement. The historical developement shows tendencies that more employees have contracts that includes non-compete clauses. This developement does not always correspond with what is allowed concerning these clauses. Non-compete clauses is adjusted by the regulations in the collective agreement known as the agreement of 1969. The agreement has also been accepted outside its regular field of application. Apart from the just mentioned agreement, unreasonable conditions of contracts kan be adapted to what is fair accordning to the swedish constitution of agreements. The paragraphs in question is the 36 and the 38 §§, that adjusts when you can shift the conditions. The 38 § is more applyable when it comes to conditions about non-compete clauses. The use of non-compete clauses is also regulated by practice in the court of law, the labour court. Many of the regulations are unspecified in their design. It is possible that these unspecified concepts are essential to maintain the possibility of applying the concepts to a larger amount of cases. The metaphysical concepts of the jurisprudence has been criticized several times during the historical developement, for example by the upholders of the positivistic Uppsala school of philosophy (the Scandinavian legal realism). The facts remains that because of its open device of concepts, the jurisprudence becomes dynamic and useable in a lot more contexts.