Trade Secrets & Employee Mobility

A bill entitled, "Employer Use of Non-Compete Agreements," pending before the Connecticut House of Representatives, proposes to regulate all Connecticut non-compete agreements entered into, renewed or extended on or after October 1, 2013, and codify the common law.

Saylavee, LLC v. Hunt demonstrates the willingness of Connecticut courts to enforce restrictive covenants that are reasonable in length of time and geographic scope.

On May 2, 2013, the Texas Uniform Trade Secrets Act (UTSA) was signed into law by Governor Rick Perry. The new law becomes effective on September 1, 2013. Nearly every state in the United States now has adopted some variation of the model Uniform Trade Secrets Act; only New York, Massachusetts and North Carolina have not.

The New Jersey Legislature was overwhelmingly in favor of a measure that would have barred employers from obtaining social media IDs and other social media related information from employees and applicants. But Governor Chris Christie vetoed A-2878 because it would frustrate a business's ability "to safeguard its business assets and proprietary information" and potentially conflict with regulatory requirements on businesses in regulated industries such as finance and healthcare. Accommodating these competing interests is not only a legislative challenge, but is one faced by employers and businesses every day.

Practitioners in the area of trade secret protection and employee mobility law are still trying to sort out the impact of a federal court jury verdict in San Francisco last month finding former Korn Ferry executive David Nosal guilty of two criminal counts stemming from his alleged misappropriation of the Company's proprietary information after his departure.

Lawyers and clients alike often believe that it is easier to enforce a non-solicitation agreement than a non-competition agreement. Sometimes, that's true. However, that does not mean that companies can do so without demonstrating a legitimate business interest in the enforcement of that non-solicitation agreement.

Failure to protect corporate trade secrets had dire consequences for AGC, Inc., a Connecticut aviation component manufacturer forced to file a Chapter 11 bankruptcy on April 16, 2013. AGC blamed its circumstances in substantial part on the theft of its trade secrets by one of its former key executives who joined a rival competitor where he used the valuable proprietary information. AGC obtained little judicial sympathy because it failed to keep its trade secrets secret in the fashion required to be awarded injunctive relief.

Social media has changed the way that companies and employees connect to clients and customers. As new uses for social networking emerge, legal issues in this area are arising.

Earlier this month, the New Jersey Assembly introduced a new bill that proposes to invalidate non-competition, non-solicitation and confidentiality covenants of individuals who qualify for unemployment compensation.

Does the recent spate of antitrust challenges to no-hire agreements mean that negotiated no-hire provisions, which are commonly found in settlement agreements and commercial contracts, face an increased risk of being held unenforceable or, even worse, giving rise to a claim for damages?