On October 12, 2023, the Wisconsin legislature introduced Assembly Bill 481, which proposes the ban of employee non-compete agreements in the Badger State. Currently, employee non-compete agreements in Wisconsin are allowed if limited to a specified territory, a specified time, and only if the “restrictions imposed are reasonably necessary for the protection of the employer or principal.” Wis. Stat.
Continue Reading Wisconsin Legislature Proposes Joining Other States in Ban of Non-Compete Agreements
The United States Attorneys’ Offices in Wisconsin criminally prosecuted two trade secret theft cases last week. In the Eastern District of Wisconsin (United States of America v. Tan Liu), the United States charged a former employee, Tan Liu, with 12 counts of stealing trade secrets from his former employer, Rockwell Automation, Inc. According to the government, in the last few weeks of his Rockwell employment, and in anticipation of leaving Rockwell for a new employer, Liu downloaded 2,500 files that contained the proprietary software and source code Rockwell uses to operate various systems and controllers.
A recent decision from the Supreme Court of Wisconsin affirmed a trial court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of a defendant accused of conspiring to misappropriate its competitor’s trade secrets. By a 4-3 decision in North Highland Inc. v. Jefferson Machine & Tool Inc., 2017 WI 75 (July 6, 2017), the Court found that plaintiff North Highland, Inc. (“North Highland”) had failed to present sufficient evidence of misappropriation or conspiracy to proceed beyond the summary judgment stage, prompting a notably sharp exchange with dissenting Chief Justice Patience D. Roggensack and a second dissent by two other justices.
On March 29, 2012, the Seventh Circuit