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Articles Posted in Trade Secrets

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You may have an overly-broad UNENFORCEABLE restrictive covenant NOT TO COMPETE if…

As we wait patiently for the comment period on the Federal Trade Commission’s proposal to ban employers from imposing non-competes to close next month, I’m here to tell you now that your business’s non-competition agreements may be dead on arrival anyway. I’ll explain why. Most states that greenlight non-competition agreements do so with…

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The FTC is slowing its roll on its proposal to ban noncompetes. And lawsuits are in the queue.

On Monday, the Federal Trade Commission delayed any potential implementation of its proposal to ban employers from imposing noncompetes on their workers by extending the public comment period. With the extension, the FTC will now accept comments on the proposed rule until April 19. The deadline was March 20. The…

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Step aside, FTC. A bipartisan group of Senators has renewed legislation to ban most noncompetes

Who knew the handcuff graphic would get so much use in 2023? And it’s only the beginning of February! Early last month, the Federal Trade Commission proposed a new rule prohibiting employers from imposing noncompetes on their workers. I wrote all about it and then spent another hour talking about it.…

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Join us at 1 PM ET today (1/9/23) on Zoom to discuss the FTC’s new proposed noncompete ban

On Thursday, the Federal Trade Commission proposed a new rule prohibiting employers from imposing noncompetes on their workers. I wrote about it on Friday and spent the weekend reading all 216 pages of the official “Non-Compete Clause Rule Notice of Proposed Rulemaking.” So, let’s discuss it on Zoom today. Click here…

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The feds are coming for your company’s noncompete agreements, old and new. You need to read THIS!

Yesterday, the Federal Trade Commission proposed a new rule prohibiting employers from imposing noncompetes on their workers. When I shared the news on LinkedIn, someone commented, “Yeah, bold move FTC…” And I was like, “Bold move is wearing seersucker before Memorial Day. This is MINDBLOWINGLY HUGE!” Folks, it’s only January…

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Here’s another reason why enforcing a non-compete can be so darn expensive

I’ve litigated many battles between companies over trade secrets and non-competition and non-solicitation agreements. The tie that binds them all is that these cases are expensive to prosecute and defend. When these cases advance to court, most are about one thing: getting an injunction to stop a former employee from…

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Jury awards $2,036,860,045 for misappropriation of trade secrets. Yes, over $2 billion!

Yesterday, a tech company announced that a Virginia jury had awarded it the biggest damages award in state court history. It was an employment case. Hopefully, I have your attention. According to the plaintiff’s press release, the jury heard evidence that the defendant hired an employee of a government contractor to…

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It’s 2022. Time for an employee handbook update. Start by adding the word “TikTok.”

A little over five years ago, TikTok, the social networking platform where users post videos ranging in length from 15 seconds to three minutes, was born. Now, I know that it’s hard to keep up with technology. But if your employee handbook doesn’t specifically reference TikTok — and I’m not…

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Yep, President Biden ordered the FTC to curtail private companies from using of non-competes.

Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons I warned — didn’t I? — you that President Biden was preparing to tell the Federal Trade Commission to either ban or curtail private employers from using non-competition agreements. On Friday morning, the White House…