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Non-Compete Agreements › Non-Solicitation Agreements › Breach of Contract

Non-Compete Agreements are contracts, typically formed in employment or business purchase contexts, where one party agrees to refrain from engaging in a particular line of work or pursuing business within a... more +
Non-Compete Agreements are contracts, typically formed in employment or business purchase contexts, where one party agrees to refrain from engaging in a particular line of work or pursuing business within a certain industry or locale. The purpose of these agreements is to protect employers or business purchasers from competition stemming from former employees or former owners of a business. less -
Seward & Kissel LLP

Employment Litigation Roundup: April 2024

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Employer sues former traders for using an allegedly confidential trading strategy but loses bid for emergency injunctive relief. On April 12, Jane Street Group LLC (“Jane Street”) sued two of its former traders and...more

Lewitt Hackman

Franchisor 101: Getting Away With Tax (Franchisor) Evasion

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A Pennsylvania federal court refused to enforce non-competition and non-solicitation covenants in a franchise agreement of a nationwide tax preparation service franchisor. The court dismissed the franchisor’s request for...more

Seward & Kissel LLP

Employment Litigation Roundup: November 2023

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Ex-employee’s golf outing with customer does not violate non-solicit - An auto parts manufacturer in Michigan sought a preliminary injunction against a former sales employee for violating his restrictive covenants,...more

Holland & Knight LLP

A Cautionary Tale from arrivia Inc. v. Rowley

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Enforceability of releases for unknown claims at the time of settlement is a well-established legal principle, as highlighted in the recent case, arrivia Inc. v. Rowley, No. CV-23-01039-PHX-DLR, 2023 WL 7386384 (D. Ariz. Nov....more

Lathrop GPM

Pennsylvania Federal Court Rules It Has Subject Matter Jurisdiction to Decide Trade Secret Claim but Dismisses as Untimely...

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A federal court in Pennsylvania granted in part and denied in part a former franchisee’s motion to dismiss a franchisor’s allegation that she misappropriated trade secrets and breached the franchise agreement. JTH Tax, LLC v....more

McDermott Will & Emery

Stryking Noncompete Preliminary Injunction

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The US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit upheld a district court’s grant of a preliminary injunction restricting a former employee from working for conflicting organizations or communicating with a competitor’s counsel....more

Foley & Lardner LLP

Protecting Trade Secrets In States That Disfavor Noncompetes

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Federal and state laws are becoming increasingly unfriendly to employers' efforts to impose post-employment restrictions on workers via nonsolicit and noncompete agreements. However, even in states that have historically...more

AEON Law

Patent Poetry: Court Awards $500K in Attorneys’ Fees to Allstate in Trade Secret Case

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A New Jersey federal court has ruled in favor of Allstate Insurance in a dispute over attorney’s fees in a case involving allegations of employee misuse of company confidential information and trade secrets. Defendants...more

Lewitt Hackman

Franchisor 101: No Repairing Delayed Filing

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A New Jersey federal court denied a franchisor’s motion for preliminary injunction against a franchisee due to franchisor’s 11 month delay in bringing the motion. Franchisee entered into two franchise agreements with H-1 Auto...more

Morris James LLP

Chancery Rules That The Standard Of Proof For Contempt Motions Is The Preponderance Of The Evidence, Not Clear And Convincing...

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inTEAM Associates, LLC v. Heartland Payment Systems, LLC, C.A. No. 11523-VCF (Del. Ch. Oct. 29, 2021) - Court of Chancery Rule 70(b) empowers the Court to hold a party in contempt for, among other things, failing to obey...more

Lewitt Hackman

Franchisor 101: Competing With a Non-Compete Covenant?

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A federal court in Louisiana granted a preliminary injunction against a former franchisee of Liberty Tax Service for breaching post-termination covenants under a franchise agreement. Liberty Tax entered into franchise...more

Winstead PC

Keeping Eyes Wide Open When New Members Join the Pack: A Cautious Approach to the Addition of New Business Partners

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There are many reasons for business owners to consider adding new partners, including to secure additional capital, to add needed expertise to help grow the company, to bring family members or close friends to join in...more

Dorsey & Whitney LLP

Colorado Courts Further Restrict Use of Restrictive Covenants

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Refusing to enforce a non-solicitation provision that violated public policy, the Colorado Court of Appeals held that parties to a non-solicitation agreement cannot contractually obligate the court to “blue pencil” the...more

McAfee & Taft

Ruling offers guidance for companies seeking injunctions to protect trade secrets

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Customers, trade secrets, and proprietary information are the lifeblood of any company. For this reason, companies routinely have employees sign confidentiality agreements and, to the extent they are enforceable,...more

Fisher Phillips

Contractual Employee Non-solicitation Provisions Under Attack: Employer Loses Battle in Case Involving Unique Facts

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California’s prohibition against contracts that restrain a person’s ability to engage in a lawful business, profession, or trade is well-established and well-known. Ten years ago, in Edwards v. Arthur Andersen LLP (2008) 44...more

FordHarrison

Non-Compete News: Is a Non-Solicitation of Employees Provision Enforceable in California?

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Last month, California’s Fourth District Court of Appeal issued AMN Healthcare, Inc. v. Aya Healthcare Servs., Inc., 28 Cal. App. 5th 923 (Cal. Ct. App. 2018), a decision calling into question the validity of non-solicitation...more

Morris James LLP

Court Of Chancery Provides Guidance On Reconciling Public Policy Exception To Noncompete Agreements

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Cabela’s LLC v. Wellman, C.A. 2018-0607-TMR (October 26, 2018) - Delaware law broadly enforces noncompete agreements. However, it will not do so when the public policy of a state with greater contacts to the parties...more

Jaburg Wilk

An Easy and Effective Way for Employers to Protect Themselves

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Imagine this scenario: Your company is in Arizona and one of your sales representatives goes to work for a competitor. He knows all about your pricing and bidding practices, so he helps your competitor undercut your prices....more

Butler Snow LLP

Tennessee Court of Appeals Finds that Former Employee Breached Non-Compete Agreement Through Actions of His Subordinates

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In November 2017, the Tennessee Court of Appeals upheld a Nashville trial court’s determination that a former employee violated his noncompete agreement by managing employees who solicited competing business in the restricted...more

Zuckerman Spaeder LLP

Swimming Pool Company’s Non-Compete Claim Takes a Dive

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When a company believes that an employee has breached a non-compete agreement by going to work for a competitor, one remedy it can seek is a preliminary injunction. A preliminary injunction is meant to preserve the status quo...more

Burns & Levinson LLP

Even a Clear Choice of Law Provision Can Be Vulnerable

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When two parties reside and/or conduct business in different states, any agreement between them almost always has a choice of law provision. Typically, such a clause is as simple as: “The Parties agree that this Contract...more

Zuckerman Spaeder LLP

How Do You Prove Damages When Executives Breach A Non-Solicit Provision?

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In 2011, a group of executives left Horizon Health Corporation for a competitor, Acadia, but they didn’t leave everything behind. Horizon’s president took a “massive, massive amount” of Horizon documents with him on an...more

Orrick - Trade Secrets Group

Don’t Friend My Friends: Nonsolicitation Agreements Should Account for Social Media Strategies

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As social media becomes an important part of many companies’ sales and branding strategies, issues relating to companies’ ability to protect their investments in such strategies are emerging. Indeed, this blog has previously...more

Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Texas Court of Appeals Finds Noncompete Agreement Inapplicable to Former President’s Post-Termination Activities Due to the...

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On October 27, 2016, the Fort Worth Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court’s order denying an application for temporary injunction seeking to enjoin Thomas Musgrave, the former president of Henry F. Coffeen III Management,...more

Ballard Spahr LLP

Pa. Superior Court Affirms Punitive Damage Award in Breach of Noncompetition Agreement

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The Pennsylvania Superior Court has affirmed a lower court ruling that assesses punitive damages against several individuals and their new employer resulting from their en masse departure from a previous firm and, in the...more

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