June 07, 2023
The life blood of many life sciences startups is their assets—employees, ideas, and innovations. A key focus for these companies is how to best protect those assets. In Japan, China, and the United States, there are underlying fundamentals in the employment law approach for startups to be aware of and effectively utilize, such as the use of confidentiality agreements; however, there are also important differences to note when doing business in each of these jurisdictions. Below, we take an illustrative look at these potential myriad of issues for emerging companies to consider.
For life sciences startups entering Japan, there are employment law tools that can help protect company assets, similar to the United States and China. There are a number of protective provisions that employers may choose to utilize, including confidentiality provisions; the right to approve any concurrent employment; prohibition against using or bringing any intellectual property belonging to others; work for hire and assignment of invention provisions; and noncompetes, nonsolicits, and nondisparagements. These can be documented in an employment agreement or in separate agreements as discussed below.
Unlike the United States, there is no concept of at-will employment (an employer's ability to dismiss an employee for any reason or no reason at all, and without notice, as long as the reason is not discriminatory). Employers in Japan may only terminate for cause and the...
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