In an unpublished opinion, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals denied a Pennsylvania company’s attempt to enjoin a former employee, who had entered into several restrictive covenants with the company, to compete directly against the company and solicit its customers.
What did this employer do wrong and how can you learn from its mistakes?
After the jump…
This story that I wrote with my Dilworth Paxson LLP colleague, David Laigaie, the Chair of Dilworth’s Corporate Investigation/White Collar Group, recently appeared in The Legal Intelligencer. If you operate a business in Pennsylvania and you have trade secrets, employees with non-solicitation agreements, or non-competition agreements, then take a few minutes and read this article. You’ll be glad you did.
If you are reading this and you are a New Jersey employer, then the answer is yes. But only under certain circumstances. I’ll lay out the test for you after the jump.
To answer your question, it depends. And in Pennsylvania, there are a lot of factors that a court will consider, based on a recent case decided by the Pennsylvania Superior Court. But, unlike many prior Pennsylvania decisions that deal with the enforceability of a non-competition agreement after an employee is fired, this recent decision focuses on a non-solicitation agreement.
Read on to find out whether the non-solicitation agreement that an employees signs with your company is still enforceable if you decide to end the employment relationship.
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