When one thinks of a “reasonable” temporal scope for a restrictive covenant between employer and employee, usually that period is measured in months or years, not decades. But as a recent North Carolina decision reminds us, context is everything, and a 10-year restriction can be enforceable in the right circumstances.
M. Robin Davis and Conrad S. Kee have written on the Jackson Lewis website about a recent decision from the North Carolina Supreme Court reversing a court of appeals decision and re-affirming that judges in that state may only apply a limited blue pencil to non-compete agreements.
Take everything you thought you knew about North Carolina’s “blue pencil” doctrine and scribble it out – well, at least as it pertains to non-compete agreements between parties to the sale of a business.
Historically, North Carolina’s limited “blue pencil” doctrine prohibited a court from “drafting a new contract for the parties” by restricting the