Practice & Procedure

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By Michael Tamvakologos and Justine Giuliani

We will now look at the different types of post-employment restrictive covenants, and work through a checklist of questions employers should ask themselves when drafting a restraint to make sure it’s the right fit.

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A good restraint is not about creating the ultimate “catch all” provision. Rather, it requires a series of good choices…
Continue Reading Drafting and Litigating Post-Employment Restrictive Covenants in Australia – Tailoring Your Restraint to Ensure the Right Fit

shutterstock_286315091When a key employee subject to an employment restraint leaves a business to join a competitor, fast decisions need to be made to protect client goodwill or guard against misuse of confidential information.

The more leverage an employer has against the former employee and his or her new employer, the better the prospects of negotiating a sensible solution quickly or,…
Continue Reading Leveraging Employment Restraints to Protect Business Assets

shutterstock_345999860Throughout 2015, Seyfarth Shaw’s dedicated Trade Secrets, Computer Fraud & Non-Competes Practice Group hosted a series of CLE webinars that addressed significant issues facing clients today in this important and ever-changing area of law. The series consisted of nine webinars:

  1. 2014 National Year in Review: What You Need to Know About the Recent Cases/Developments in Trade Secrets, Non-Compete and Computer

…
Continue Reading Best Practices Shared in Seyfarth Shaw’s 2015 Trade Secrets Webinar Series Year in Review

shutterstock_173862431In a case solely comprised of state-law claims to enforce employment covenants, a United States District Judge in the North District of Texas ruled last week in Leica Microsystems Inc. v. Hernandez et al., No. 3:15-CV-2531-D, 2015 WL 7424770 (Nov. 23, 2015) that a defendant’s characterization of the plaintiff’s complaint as conduct violating federal antitrust laws was insufficient to…
Continue Reading Texas Federal Court Rules “Anti-Competitive” Employment Covenants Do Not Raise Federal Antitrust Question

shutterstock_114348199In a landmark ruling of first impression, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court recently held that an employer’s non-competition covenant, which included the employee’s pledge not to challenge the covenant for inadequate consideration, is unenforceable unless it is accompanied by a change in job status or some other significant benefit.  Socko v. Mid-Atlantic Systems of CPA, Inc., Case No. 3-40-2015 (Nov. …
Continue Reading Pennsylvania Supreme Court Rules That Continued Employment Is Not Sufficient Consideration for Non-Competes Entered Into After the Employment Relationship Has Begun

shutterstock_78698299In recent weeks, courts almost routinely have been denying preliminary injunctive relief in cases alleging violation of non-compete and similar employment agreements.  Three examples: Burleigh v. Center Point Contractors, 2015 Ark. App. 615 (Oct. 28, 2015); Evans v. Generic Solution Engineering, LLC, Case No. 5D15-578 (Fla. App., Oct. 30, 2015); and Great Lakes Home Health Services Inc. v. …
Continue Reading Trend In The Courts: It’s Getting Harder To Obtain Preliminary Injunctions In Restrictive Covenant Cases

Untitled-1Though an employer may be eager to bring a trade secret claim against former employees as soon as possible, filing suit before properly vetting the claim can lead to serious consequences: a malicious prosecution case against the lawyers who signed the pleadings.

A law firm is fighting such allegations in California after losing at bench trial on behalf of FLIR…
Continue Reading “Reasonable Suspicion” of Trade Secret Misappropriation Isn’t Always Enough

shutterstock_317654018For Dumpling Daughter and its newly opened rival Dumpling Girl, things are heating up in the kitchen and the courtroom, as reported by the Boston Globe, after the former filed a lawsuit in federal court in Boston asserting a host of claims against Dumpling Girl and its three owners, including misappropriation of trade secrets, unfair competition, trademark infringement, conversion,…
Continue Reading Dueling Dumpling Trade Secret Dispute Heads to District Court

shutterstock_295640804By Christopher Lowe and Robert T. Szyba

In a recent ruling, the New Jersey Supreme Court gave employers a great recourse for dealing with former employees who breach their duty of loyalty.  In Bruce Kaye v. Alan P. Rosefielde, the Court allowed an employer to recover compensation paid to a disloyal, recently terminated, employee, even where the employer sustained…
Continue Reading Getting Your Money Back: New Jersey Employers Can Disgorge A Disloyal Employee’s Salary

shutterstock_147490814An Illinois appellate court recently rejected applying the inevitable disclosure doctrine in a trade secret misappropriation spat arising out of a failed business transaction.

After first securing an executed confidentiality agreement, Destiny, the developer of a proprietary healthcare wellness program called “Vitality,” shared details of it with Cigna, a healthcare insurer.  The insurer decided instead to create a wellness product…
Continue Reading Inevitable Disclosure Doctrine Held Inapplicable To Failed Business Transaction