As previously noted in Jackson Lewis’ Non-Compete & Trade Secrets Report, Georgia adopted legislation governing restrictive covenant agreements entered into on or after May 11, 2011. This law, however, does not address employee non-solicitation (i.e., anti-pirating) covenants, leaving courts to apply common law to such restrictions.  Georgia common law can be confusing and even contradictory

The Minnesota federal district court recently refused to enforce a non-compete agreement, in part, because the employer failed to establish that the agreement was supported by valuable consideration.  The decision, issued on October 6, 2017 in Mid-America Business Systems, v. Sanderson et. al., Case No. 17-3876, serves as an important reminder that,

Misappropriation of trade secrets claims can sometimes be difficult to sustain. While evidence of the taking of a trade secret may be available, evidence of its subsequent use may not.  In Integrated Global Services, Inc. v. Michael Mayo, Case No. 3:17cv563, by decision issued on September 13, 2017, the federal court for the

In Florida, non-competition and other restrictive covenant agreements are enforceable to the extent they are tailored to protect a legitimate business interest. On September 14, 2017, the Florida Supreme Court held that a company’s relationships with business referral sources may constitute a protectable business interest – White v. Mederi Caretenders Visiting Services of Southeast Fla.

In a recent decision examining Kansas non-compete law, the United States District Court for the District of Kansas partially granted a company’s motion to enjoin its former employee’s violations of the non-compete and customer non-solicitation provisions of his employment agreement. The decision, in the matter of Servi Tech, Inc. v. Olson, highlights a number

Utah

Conrad S. Kee from our Salt Lake City office and Cliff Atlas, co-chair of the firm’s non-compete practice group have written on the firm’s website about two new important laws in Utah, the Post-Employment Restrictions Act and the Computer Abuse and Data Recovery Act.

googledocsWhether Google Docs, Dropbox, or some other file sharing system, employees, especially millennials and other digital natives, are increasingly likely to set up personal cloud-based document sharing and storage accounts for work purposes, usually with well-meaning intentions, such as convenience and flexibility. Sometimes this is done with explicit company approval, sometimes it is done with

sanctionsThe California Court of Appeal has upheld an award of monetary sanctions against a company that brought a lawsuit against its competitor that the court found was meritless and intended to stifle competition. Cypress Semiconductor Corp. v. Maxim Integrated Products, Inc., H038555 (Apr. 28, 2015). Cypress sued Maxim for trade secret misappropriation, alleging Maxim

geneticsA New Jersey state court judge has allowed a $10 million jury verdict to stand in favor of biotech firm GenScript USA in its trade secret and employee piracy claims against competitor, Genewiz, Inc. In October 2014, the jury had entered a multi-million dollar verdict in GenScript’s favor following a six-week trial. The jury found

A U.S. District Judge in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania has allowed several claims to proceed to trial following a motion for summary judgment by defendants in Ozburn-Hessey Logistics, LLC v. 721 Logistics, LLC, et al, No. 12-0864 (April 4, 2014). The allegations in the case go beyond the typical defection of an employee