Texas law draws a narrow line between a covenant that restricts an employee’s ability to compete and an incentive that rewards the employee for choosing not to do so. In Afzal v. Ramineni, 2026 WL 2268582 (Tex. App.—Beaumont Aug. 6, 2026, pet. filed), the Beaumont Court of Appeals carried that distinction beyond the restricted-stock incentive awards at issue in…

Continue Reading Rewarding Loyalty, Not Protecting an Investment: Texas Court Extends Forfeiture-for-Competition Rule Beyond Executive Compensation

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Thursday, November 5, 2026
1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. Eastern
12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. Central
11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Mountain
10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. Pacific

About the Program

For life sciences companies, some of their most valuable information may exist outside the protections afforded by patents and other intellectual property rights. From product development and…

Continue Reading Webinar – Protecting Life Sciences Trade Secrets: From Development to the AI Era

For more than a decade, health care noncompete legislation largely focused on a familiar target: physician restrictive covenants.

That paradigm is rapidly disappearing.

Across the country, legislatures are no longer asking simply whether physician noncompetes should be enforceable. Instead, states are adopting increasingly diverse regulatory frameworks that address workforce mobility, market concentration, patient access, continuity of care, and the role…

Continue Reading A New Era of Health Care Noncompetes: Emerging Models and the Future of Labor Mobility

In the wake of the Federal Trade Commission’s recently failed attempt to ban non-compete agreements between employers and workers,[1] individual states have once again taken up the mantle of further regulating and limiting their use. These states’ new efforts have appeared with greatest frequency in the health care sector. 

In states where noncompete laws have recently changed, legislatures appear…

Continue Reading Non-Compete Agreements in Health Care: A Rapidly Evolving Legal Landscape

Key Takeaways

  • Texas imposes new limits on non-compete agreements with licensed physicians and health care professionals that takes effect September 1, 2025.
  • To be enforceable, non-competes with these individuals must now meet strict geographic and time limitations, have a buyout cap, and use clear contract language.
  • The law reflects a trend toward narrowing or prohibiting non-competes in health care.

On…

Continue Reading Lone Star Limitations – Texas Further Narrows the Use of Non-Competes with Medical Professionals

With the FTC Ban on non-competes essentially dead in the Courts of Appeal, various states and agencies have taken up the mantle to further limit or expand the use of restrictive covenants for certain populations in 2025. 

Below is a list of major legislative changes, judicial decisions, and agency actions at the state and federal level affecting non-compete agreements in…

Continue Reading Restrictive Covenant Law For The First Four Months of 2025

Are nonprofit health care entities exempt from the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) Final Rule banning non-competes in worker agreements? The answer is not cut and dry. While the FTC’s authority generally stops at the doors of nonprofit entities, the FTC has warned in its Final Rule that it intends to vigorously enforce the ban wherever it can claim jurisdiction. The…

Continue Reading FTC Signals Its Intent To Pursue Nonprofit Health Care Entities With Its Non-Compete Ban Whenever Possible

Aegis Spine Inc. has agreed to pay $8,000,000 to fellow spinal implant manufacturer Life Spine Inc., following Life Spine’s suit in the Northern District of Illinois alleging Aegis had misappropriated Life Spine’s trade secrets to create a “knockoff” competitive implant.

Life Spine, based in Illinois, develops and manufactures medical devices aimed at treating various spinal disorders. Its principal line of…

Continue Reading Medical Device Companies Settle Trade Secrets Dispute for $8,000,000