>If the company is paying you to develop a system for them based on their expertise and domain knowledge, reasonably you shouldn't be allowed to take the benefits they paid for away with you. however, if they're bringing you in as a domain expert, then you earn your living by leveraging your expertise so confidentiality must be limited to company specifics, not to the whole domain and they have to expect that a professional may be sought by other providers and can't be shut down unless they buy your future potential at full price.
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>There is a middle ground. Often I see clauses limiting confidentiality to information that isn't in the public arena or legitimately available to you via other means and sometimes to specific information they will reveal to you.

Hi John,

I don't have any problem with the confidentiality as I fully understand that. My issue is with the not doing anything that could be considered a conflict of interest. It sounds like that is for the rest of my life, but I assume they probably just mean for the duration of this contract, I just wonder if that should be spelled out clearly.