Noncompete Agreements - Traps for the Unwary: Part 2
Ohio has long recognized the enforceability of non-compete agreements. Broadly speaking, a court can do one of three things with an unenforceable non-compete agreement: (1) the court can apply the “red pencil” doctrine and...more
A district court in Georgia recently granted a Motion for Preliminary Injunction filed by HOA Franchising, LLC’s, the franchisor of the Hooters restaurant chain (“Hooters”), against one of its former restaurant franchisees,...more
The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals recently affirmed in part, and vacated in part, a district court’s issuance of an injunction preventing a franchisor’s enforcement of a noncompete covenant as written but allowing...more
In 2016, I wrote about the Nevada Supreme Court's refusal to "blue pencil" non-compete agreements so as to make theme enforceable. Golden Road Motor Inn, Inc. v. Islam, 132 Nev. 476, 488, 376 P.3d 151, 159 (2016). The...more
This event is only open to in-house counsel. Join ACC Georgia and Womble Bond Dickinson as Joe Whitley, Former Homeland Security General Counsel and Womble Bond Dickinson partner, and Anna Burton, GEMA (Georgia Emergency...more
Many employers require employees to sign restrictive covenants prohibiting them from engaging in certain activities after their employment ends. These prohibitions frequently include - opening or working for a competing...more
On March 16, 2023, the Delaware Chancery Court in Intertek Testing Services NA, Inc. v. Eastman found a sale-of-business non-compete was overbroad, given its worldwide geographic scope, and refused to modify it to make it...more
The Delaware Chancery Court recently invalidated restrictive covenants in a limited partnership agreement, finding the covenants to be “facially overbroad” and declining to “blue pencil” those provisions. Significantly, the...more
The Wyoming Supreme Court decided four cases in the last 12 months against the enforcement of employees’ agreements not to compete with their former employer. Although each case was unique, the tenor and direction of these...more
Many non-compete agreements face challenges in both execution and enforcement. Each state has its own standards for what is permissible regarding duration and scope. And many states layer on additional restrictions and...more
A non-competition agreement (or “non-compete”) is an agreement between an employer and employee where the employee agrees not to engage in “competitive activity” for a defined term and geographic scope. These agreements can...more
Yes, but with caveats. For non-compete agreements in Arkansas, there are separate rules for non-medical and medical employees. This variance stems from Arkansas’ non-compete statute, which applies to non-medical employees,...more
In employment law, “blue penciling” a non-compete agreement refers to the practice whereby a court concludes that a non-compete agreement is unenforceable because it is overly broad, but rather than throw out the agreement...more
On February 25, 2022, the Wyoming Supreme Court issued a decision prohibiting courts from revising, or “blue penciling,” noncompete agreements to be reasonable and enforceable under the law. The decision overrules the Wyoming...more
Since the passage of the Georgia Restrictive Covenants Act (O.C.G.A. § 13-8-50 et seq.) in May 2011, there has been some level of uncertainty regarding the extent to which a court may “blue pencil” or modify an otherwise...more
This is a two-part series where we are doing a deep dive into noncompete agreements and traps for the unwary. Noncompete agreements have a reputation for being technical, but what is it exactly that makes them so tricky? Join...more
Non-compete and non-solicitation agreements (“restrictive covenants”) can be a helpful tool for protecting a business, as they allow employers to restrict their employees’ ability to seek employment with competitors and/or...more
Florida’s noncompete statute, Fla. Stat. 542.335, provides numerous protections to employers or business purchasers who are looking to safeguard a company’s goodwill, trademarks and the like. Still, it is important to not...more
As we have previously blogged about, in 2016 the Nevada Supreme Court refused to adopt the “blue pencil” doctrine and held that Nevada courts could not modify over-broad restrictive covenants. The following year, we alerted...more
The Nevada Supreme Court recently addressed the question of whether lower courts may blue-pencil an otherwise unenforceable noncompetition agreement pursuant to a provision in the agreement that allows for court modification...more
In another strike against restrictive covenants in employment contracts, Judge Paul G. Gardephe of the Southern District of New York ruled in Jessica Denson v. Donald J. Trump For President, Inc. that the non-disclosure and...more
In Golden Road Motor Inn, Inc. v. Islam, 132 Nev. 476, 488, 376 P.3d 151, 159 (2016), the Nevada Supreme Court held that district courts cannot, on their own, blue-pencil a noncompetition agreement to remove unreasonably...more
On December 31, 2020, the Nevada Supreme Court issued an opinion addressing and clarifying several issues relating to the power of the court to reform or modify an unreasonable noncompetition agreement often referred to as...more
The next state in our series exploring non-compete agreements is Texas’ neighbor to the east, Louisiana. As I like to say, when you travel east and cross the Sabine River from Texas to Louisiana all the words change but the...more
A key employee just left. He was intimately involved in a major transaction. He knows all the secrets of a $40 million deal. To make matters worse, he is going to a competitor. You have a non-compete – what can you do? Or,...more