An NDA is practically unenforceable in this situation, which is the entire point a noncompete is a thing. Who is going to snitch on them for revealing AWS secrets to Google and violating the NDA? Another Google exec?

don't need a snitch. they can just assume that it happens and sue anyways. the difficult part is coming up with proof that it actually happened

So you think it's a good idea to take legal action against someone with no proof and hope it just materializes over time?

I mean, I can sue you for stealing US nuclear secrets. Now if only I had some evidence...

> I mean, I can sue you for stealing US nuclear secrets. Now if only I had some evidence...

#1 - No you can't, because only government officials can prosecute "crimes", as opposed to civil causes of action. (I think this distinction is stupid; it is not part of anyone's view of the world and it doesn't have any useful effects. But it will definitely stop you from prosecuting someone for espionage.)

#2 - No, you can't, because you don't suffer any injury if em-bee steals US nuclear secrets.

> So you think it's a good idea to take legal action against someone with no proof and hope it just materializes over time?

Fishing expeditions are common and sometimes...legendary cough SCO-Linux dispute

i am not saying that doing that is always a good idea, but we are talking about amazon vs google, to competitors who have more resources than sense, so yes, absolutely.

They aren’t suing someone random. Google would surely back the legal fees for the person if Google themselves aren’t somehow sued. What would be the point of this then?

of course not random, but the person switching jobs.

clearly (from amazon's perspective) you can't switch to google without revealing secrets and violating your NDA, therefore we sue you.

> An NDA is practically unenforceable in this situation

As we shall see, the non-compete is also unenforceable in this situation, it just costs more to show that it's not. Non-competes are for the "small" people.

The bigger question is, why are you carrying water for them? Enforceability of this BS is not in your interest unless you're a major shareholder, and even then non-competes are ethically dubious at best. If what's in his head is so valuable (which I'm almost certain it's not), Amazon should offer to pay him his previous comp for the duration of his non-compete, at the very least, so that he sits it out for a year. What are his options? To not ever work anywhere else again? To radically switch careers upon departure?

Trade secrets law is the stick that keeps people from sharing former company secrets. People don't want to go to jail or have a felony on their record.