A Texas non-compete must satisfy two main components to be enforceable. The non-compete has to be ancillary to an otherwise enforceable agreement and be reasonable in time and scope. Before the Texas Supreme Court this week was a case where the court was asked to consider a non-compete without a geographical restriction and consider whether
Nobody likes non-competes except business owners/leaders trying to use them to protect their business. It is the proverbial political softball that some legislatures attempt to address every session. In May the Obama Administration took on non-competes and released a report entitled “Non-Compete Agreement: Analysis of the Usage, Potential Issues, and State Responses”. The report
Some time you are right, and some time you are wrong. A few months ago I offered the opinion that it was unlikely the Texas Supreme Court would exclude a client representative from the courtroom during a trade secrets case when trade secrets were discussed. I was wrong. The Texas Supreme Court has said
Last week President Obama signed the Defend Trade Secrets Act. Finally some legislation both sides of the aisle could agree on and the President could sign. After all, who doesn’t want to protect trade secrets? So what does this mean for Texas employers faced with a departing employee?
Inevitably whenever I talk with a client there is always the discussion about attorneys’ fees and how to get the other side to pay them. The unfortunate reality is there are very limited circumstances where attorneys’ fees are recoverable. The US has the “American Rule” which generally means that each party pays their fees.
Imagine you are int he courtroom with your lawyer in a trade secret lawsuit. Your company is accused of stealing trade secrets from a competitor. Then imagine the Judge tells you you have to leave the courtroom because the other side does not want yout to hear what its trade secrets are. This issue (though
We’ve discussed the inevitable disclosure doctrine in previous posts. It’s a powerful claim and whether adoption of the uniform trade secrets act makes it viable in Texas remains to be seen. What is it? Assume that in your prior job you were exposed to certain trade secrets of your employer that you would “inevitably”
Last week I had the privilege of speaking and attending the Texas Non-Compete Camp put on by UT LAW CLE and Mike Maslanka. There were a number of great lawyers there addressing topics ranging from whether to sue the new employer of a former employee to ethical considerations of representing both the employee and employer.
It’s always interesting to take a look at other states to see how they deal with non-compete legislation. We’ve discussed Masschusetts and most recently doctor non-competes in New Mexico. Hawaii is the latest state to enact new noncompete legislation targeting workers in a “technology business”. This is how the Hawaii legislature defined “technology business”:
For the last few months I’ve been involved in a number of temporary restraining order/preliminary injunction cases in state and federal courts in a number of different industries/professions. Some general reminders/lessons from non-compete/non-solicit fights: