The Employer Handbook Blog
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. Continue reading
Articles Posted in Trade Secrets
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. Continue reading
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 just talking about your social media policy — then you, or your employees, or perhaps both, are looking for trouble.
Just ask a former flight attendant for a major airline. Continue reading
Yep, President Biden ordered the FTC to curtail private companies from using of non-competes.
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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. Continue reading
Wait, WHAT?!? Is President Biden planning to ban private employers from using non-competes?
Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay
So much for my blog servers getting a much-needed Friday rest. Continue reading
What do adult toys and X-rays have to do with protecting trade secrets?
Image by Tayeb MEZAHDIA from Pixabay
I’ve been revising a lot of NDAs recently — not to be confused with N.W.A.s. Although, sometimes, I do listen to N.W.A. while updating nondisclosure agreements.
My curious legal listening habits notwithstanding, there is a practical employment law point I’d like to make here. And it involves sex toys.
Really, Eric?!?
What do restrictive covenants have to do with COVID-19? More than you think.
Image Credit: Maialisa (pixabay.com)
Remember back in January, when I told you that restrictive covenants would be the most significant employment law issues for employers in 2020? Continue reading
Forget what you heard. THIS, right here, will be the biggest employment law concern for employers in 2020.
I’ve seen a lot of ink spilled by employment lawyers about how #MeToo, new overtime rules, medical marijuana, and salary history questions will be the significant issues with which employers would have to deal in 2020.
The Federal Trade Commission and I have other ideas. Continue reading
A first-of-its-kind nationwide ban on non-competition agreements is coming. Possibly.
Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay
In 2016, President Obama signed the Defend Trade Secrets Act into law. A bipartisan approach to creating a nationwide enforcement mechanism, the DTSA prohibits misappropriation of trade secrets in all 50 states.
Fast forward to 2019, and the federal government is back at it again with another bipartisan bill — this time, legislation taking on non-competition agreements. Continue reading
Seven signs the non-solicitation and non-competition agreements your employees signed may be unenforceable.
User:VasilievVV and user:Jarekt [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
The rest of you deadbeats are stuck with only five free weekly blog posts. Continue reading