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
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
Image Credit: Pixabay.com (https://pixabay.com/vectors/resume-unemployed-job-unemployment-2163673/)
In most states, non-competition agreements between an employer and employee are legal, as long as there is some form of consideration (like money) to support them.
But, what about a no-hire or no-poach agreement; e.g., a ‘contract’ between two businesses where one (or both) agrees not to hire the others’ employees during their business relationship and for some time after it ends?
That must be legal too, right?
Probably not. Continue reading
Evan-Amos [Public domain], from Wikimedia Commons
Have I piqued your interest? Continue reading
By US Army [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Your former employee, the one whom you paid an extra boat load of money to sign a non-solicitation agreement, just sent a bunch of LinkedIn invites to connect with some of your current employees.
Ready, fire, aim.
That’s the approach that many employers take when seeking to enforce a covenant not to compete with a former employee.
Non-competition agreements haven’t gotten much play on this blog. It’s like going into an ice cream shop and ordering Butter Brickle. Meh. Yet, there it is: Butter Brickle, right between classics like Vanilla and Chocolate and those newer flavors, Tahitian Vanilla and Chocolate Dreamsicle.
As a mainstay, every once and a while, I must page homage.
***spoons Butter Brickle into gaping mouth***
It’s pretty good, you know.
And non-competes….let’s discuss them too. Specifically, what happens if a former employee joins a top competitor, and, by the time a judge is ready to do something about it, the non-competition agreement is about to expire? Will the court level the playing field and restart the non-compete?
On Wednesday, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court made a lot of — some would say, creative — lawyers unhappy.
Yesterday, I had the privilege of presenting a webinar for LexisNexis with my colleague, Larry Holmes, and Sterling Miller. Larry and I have served in the restrictive-covenant trenches together many times. Sterling serves as Senior Counsel at Gober Hilgers. He’s also the former General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer to Sabre Corporation and former General Counsel to Travelocity.com. And without any prodding from me, Sterling admitted to reading this blog. Clearly, he’s good people.
Anyway, about that webinar. The three of us riffed for an hour and twenty on the ins and outs of non-competition and non-solicitation agreements. Plus, we offered some drafting tips and discussed ways to protect confidential information. And, of course, I couldn’t resist intersecting those topics with social media. Secret sauce, anyone? At the end, we took 15 minutes of questions from folks like you.
If you’d like to get a copy of the webinar, I’m pretty sure that I can hook you up. (Don’t let me down, Lexis!) Drop me a line and I’ll do my best to take care of you.
The Employer Handbook Blog