A recent Indiana Court of Appeals opinion, designated as non-precedential, discussed that state’s law concerning non-competition agreements. Most significant, the court upheld a commitment not to solicit the employer’s current or recent customers for two years even though the covenant contains no geographical limitation. However, provisions precluding any “contact with” such customers, and forbidding acceptance of “referrals of” them, were “blue penciled.” The court reversed the entry of summary judgment for the ex-employees and remanded for trial. Think Tank Software Dev. Corp. v. Chester, Inc., No. 64A03-1003-PL-172 (Ind. Ct. Appeals, Apr. 11, 2011).

Think Tank Software Development Corporation, and a number of companies affiliated with it (collectively, “Think Tank”), sued 10 former employees almost all of whom went to work for defendant Chester, Inc. Think Tank and Chester are competitors, engaging in what the court called “computer-related business activities.” Think Tank alleged violation of covenants not to compete and misappropriation of trade secrets. 

After more than five years of motion practice and discovery, the trial court granted summary judgment to the defendants on the grounds that the covenant not to compete “is overbroad and is therefore unenforceable . . . and cannot be reformed,” and that the property rights in which Think Tank claimed confidentiality did not constitute trade secrets. What the trial court apparently viewed as the covenant’s fatal flaw was that it was unlimited as to an applicable territory. Further, the affidavit of a former Think Tank director of technology seemingly demonstrated that the company had no protectable business information.

The Court of Appeals disagreed. Although upholding a two-year restriction on solicitation of recent former customers, the appellate court struck as unreasonable the prohibition against contacting them. Similarly, the court approved a ban on selling to, servicing, consulting, or negotiating with those customers, but a prohibition on acceptance of referrals of new customers — for example, by the ex-employer’s customers — was invalidated. Indiana recognizes “blue penciling” as an option for a court. The absence of a territorial restriction was not fatal, according to the court, because “the class of prohibited contacts [customers who had been such within two years of the former employees’ termination] is well defined and specific, thereby eliminating the need for any geographical limitation.” 

As for trade secrets, the appellate tribunal held that Think Tank sufficiently raised genuine issues of material fact with respect to whether the company’s “customer identities” and “tailored solutions to the customers’ information technology needs combine to form confidential information.” Similarly, Think Tank provided enough evidence of “its extensive security provisions in protecting” that information to withstand a motion for summary judgment.

The enforceability of a non-compete and non-solicitation agreement in a particular case frequently turns on the applicable facts and circumstances, the precise wording of the restriction, and the jurisdiction. The question of whether particular information qualifies as a trade secret also is fact-intensive. When in doubt, contact a Seyfarth Shaw Trade Secrets Group attorney.