---
title: "Employee confidentiality and invention assignment, with DTSA notice"
url: "https://ailawframework.com/precedents/employment-and-workplace-relations/us-employee-confidentiality-inventions"
type: "precedent"
site: "AI Law Framework"
id: "a14-us-employee-confidentiality-inventions"
area_id: "A14"
kind: "agreement"
ai_level: "yellow"
version: 1
task_ids: ["A14-T1-R6"]
law_stated_as_at: "2026-10-22"
---

# Employee confidentiality and invention assignment, with DTSA notice

> Employee agreement on confidential information and inventions, including the Defend Trade Secrets Act immunity notice. California employees get the Labor Code § 2870 carve-out.…

Canonical page: https://ailawframework.com/precedents/employment-and-workplace-relations/us-employee-confidentiality-inventions  
Law stated as at: 2026-10-22

Site index for agents: https://ailawframework.com/llms.txt

Employee agreement on confidential information and inventions, including the Defend Trade Secrets Act immunity notice. California employees get the Labor Code § 2870 carve-out. A contractor needs a different work-made-for-hire analysis.

## Key facts

- Kind: Agreement. A contract between two or more parties.
- Practice area: [Employment & Workplace Relations](https://ailawframework.com/precedents/employment-and-workplace-relations.md)
- Jurisdictions: United States
- AI level: Yellow. You and the tool draft together, with you directing. You check every statement you rely on.
- Law stated as at: 2026-10-22
- Status: Maintained. Checked on 2026-10-22 against the 5 authorities it cites, for United States.

## When to use it

Use when an employee will have access to trade secrets or other confidential information, or is expected to create inventions in the job. Do not use it as the only agreement with a contractor. Do not use it to impose a non-compete.

## Used for these tasks

- [Draft or review an employment or executive contract, including restraints](https://ailawframework.com/practice/employment-and-workplace-relations/draft-or-review-an-employment-or-executive-contract-including-restraints.md)

## How AI may be used

AI may assemble this agreement from the employer's facts and flag a missing DTSA notice or a missing California carve-out. The lawyer decides the invention clause for the state where the employee works before the employee signs.

**AI may:**

- Insert the employer name and the employee's role from the offer sheet
- Flag whether the draft includes the § 1833(b) notice and, for a California workplace, the § 2870 carve-out
- Compare a contractor draft with this employee form and list clauses that assume employment

**AI must not:**

- Must not delete the immunity notice
- Must not apply the California carve-out, or omit it, without the lawyer identifying the employee's workplace
- Must not add a non-compete

**The lawyer checks:**

- The agreement governs trade secrets or other confidential information, so § 1833(b) notice is included, or a cross-reference to a policy that meets § 1833(b)(3)(B)
- For a California employee, inventions excluded by Labor Code § 2870 are not assigned
- Copyright is treated as a work made for hire only where Circular 30's test is met, and any assignment is in a signed writing

## Authorities

- [18 U.S.C. § 1833(b) (immunity from trade-secret liability for confidential reports of suspected illegal conduct, and the notice requirement)](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1833)
- [18 U.S.C. § 1839(3) (definition of trade secret)](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1839)
- [California Labor Code § 2870 (limits on invention-assignment clauses)](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=2870.&lawCode=LAB)
- [U.S. Copyright Office Circular 30: Works Made for Hire](https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ30.pdf)
- [17 U.S.C. § 204(a) (transfer of copyright ownership)](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/204)

## Full text and drafting notes

The full text and the drafting notes are not part of this public page. Signed-in firm accounts can read them at https://ailawframework.com/precedents/employment-and-workplace-relations/us-employee-confidentiality-inventions and through the signed-in MCP connector https://ailawframework.com/mcp/firm.

*Practice guidance for planning and review. Confirm current primary sources and the requirements of the actual matter. This is general information, not legal advice.*