As in most states, the enforceability of restrictive covenants or non-compete clauses in the Fifth Circuit turns primarily on the reasonableness of the restriction’s geographic and temporal scope. Louisiana and Texas have enacted statutes explaining when non-competes may be enforced. But in Mississippi, enforcement is determined entirely by common law, and courts will consider the public interest in addition to the interests of the parties involved. State Law governing restrictive covenants Restrictive covenants in employment…

In trade secret misappropriation cases, the scope and sufficiency of the trade secret identification are central issues. And, once resolved, plaintiffs may allege new trade secrets thefts gleaned during fact discovery, which rekindles those issues. Recently, the United States District Court, Northern District of Illinois closely scrutinized just such lately raised trade secrets in Motorola Solutions, Inc. v. Hytera Communications Corp. There, after two years in a “hard-fought, contentious case,” with just twelve days left…

The Third Circuit recently held that a former employer’s alleged surreptitious monitoring of a departed employee’s Facebook messages was not enough to invoke the unclean hands doctrine in Scherer Design Grp., LLC v. Ahead Eng’g LLC, No. 18-2835, 2019 WL 937176 (3d Cir. Feb. 25, 2019). SDG, an engineering firm, became suspicious when several employees left the firm and a major client left with them. Although the firm had no specific policy informing employees that…

On March 22, 2019, the State of Utah amended its non-compete statute for the third time in only three years. “Strike One” came in 2016, when the State of Utah enacted Utah Code Annotated 34-51-201 et seq.to restrict the validity of post-employment restrict covenants to no more than one year from the date on which an employee is no longer employed by the employer. (But it only applied to covenants entered into on or after…

Germany recently adopted new legislation governing trade secret protection. The “Gesetz zum Schutz von Geschäftsgeheimnissen” (or Trade Secrets Act) implements European Union Directive 2016/943, which is intended to harmonize trade secrets law across the European Union. While many of the core provisions of the Trade Secrets Act will be familiar to practitioners of U.S. trade secrets law, they are new to Germany. For example, German law did not previously define what constitutes a protectable trade…

The Federal Reserve is prepared to ratchet up the penalty for bankers caught misappropriating their employer’s trade secrets. Although bankers were already subject to civil liability under state laws governing trade secrets and breach of contract, the Federal Reserve now appears willing to subject guilty bankers to an outright ban from working with any institution specified in 12 U.S.C. § 1818(e)(7)(a), pursuant to section 8(e) of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act. Two Wyoming bankers are seemingly…

In a recent decision, the Supreme Court of Vermont affirmed its commitment to protecting commercial secrets of private companies, even if they may have been disclosed to a public agency. Long v. City of Burlington, 199 A.3d 542 (Vt. 2018). The Burlington City Council was working with its consultant, ECONorthwest, and private property owners Devonwood Investors, LLC and BTC Mall Associates LLC (collectively BTC) to redevelop several downtown city blocks. The parties entered into a…