This week, we bring you our special Spilling Secrets podcast series on the future of non-compete and trade secrets law:
The holidays are over, and year-end bonuses are being paid, making January and the first quarter a...more
“Practices that three unelected bureaucrats find distasteful will be labeled with nefarious adjectives and summarily condemned, with little to no evidence of harm to competition. I fear the consequences for our economy, and...more
On Thursday, January 5, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) made headlines with its announcement that it is proposing a new rule that would ban employers from using noncompete clauses (the “rule”)....more
1/10/2023
/ Comment Period ,
Contract Terms ,
Employment Contract ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
FTC Act ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Proposed Rules ,
Public Comment ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
Section 5 ,
Unfair Competition
On Thursday, January 5, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) made headlines with its announcement that it is proposing a new rule that would ban employers from using noncompete clauses (the “rule”)....more
This week, we bring you our special Spilling Secrets podcast series on the future of non-compete and trade secrets law.
The year is coming to a close, and it was a big one in the world of trade secrets and non-competes. In...more
Perhaps we were wrong. Or perhaps we were just not thinking creatively enough. After President Biden issued his “Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy,” in which he “encourage[d]” the Federal Trade...more
This week, we bring you our special Spilling Secrets podcast series on the future of non-compete and trade secrets law.
Non-compete agreements are generally unenforceable against lawyers, but there are some exceptions. In...more
This week, we bring you our special Spilling Secrets podcast series on the future of non-compete and trade secrets law.
An employer often overlooks training employees on what their restrictive covenant means and how to honor...more
9/21/2022
/ Confidentiality Agreements ,
Employee Training ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Former Employer ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Misappropriation ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Non-Solicitation Agreements ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
Trade Secrets
As our antitrust colleagues explained recently, on August 26, 2022, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) published its “Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2022–2026,” as required under the GPRA Modernization Act of 2010. Readers...more
This week, we bring you our special Spilling Secrets podcast series on the future of non-compete and trade secrets law.
Two and a half years into the pandemic, it appears that remote work is here to stay, to varying degrees,...more
As we have previously reported, the Colorado Assembly passed sweeping changes to the state’s noncompete law that, among other things, (1) set compensation floors for enforcement of both noncompetes ($101,250) and customer...more
As readers of this blog likely know, many states have entirely different statutory schemes for noncompetes in the healthcare industry. Indeed, while 47 states generally permit noncompetes, more than a dozen expressly prohibit...more
Despite the Supreme Court’s recent 6-3 ruling in West Virginia v. EPA that regulatory agencies must have “clear congressional authorization” to make rules pertaining to “major questions” that are of “great political...more
This week, we introduce Spilling Secrets, a new monthly podcast series on the future of non-compete and trade secrets law.
If you're hiring from a competitor amid the Great Resignation, one of your top priorities is not...more
As we previously reported, the Colorado General Assembly passed a bill in May making substantial amendments to Colorado’s noncompete statute, C.R.S. § 8-2-113. Governor Jared Polis signed the bill on June 8, 2022, meaning the...more
Several states over the past few years have passed legislation prohibiting the use in noncompete agreements (and other employment-related agreements) of out-of-state choice-of-law and forum selection provisions. A few of...more
As readers of this blog are aware, many states now require employers to provide prospective employees with copies of any noncompetes (and, in some cases, other restrictive covenants) they will be required to sign as a...more
You don’t hear much positive news these days about noncompete agreements. Instead, most national media outlets take cases of extreme abuse and frame them as the norm instead of the outliers that they are. And the national...more
Microsoft Corp. announced last week that it is immediately eliminating noncompetes for all employees below the partner and executive levels, including doing away with all existing noncompetes for covered employees. In a June...more
According to a report in the Wall Street Journal last week, the Federal Trade Commission is considering new regulations to prohibit the use of noncompetes and to target their use in individual cases through enforcement...more
We have written recently about legislative action in various states concerning their restrictive covenant laws, including Washington state’s prohibitions on nondisclosure and nondisparagement provisions in employment...more
We wrote recently about a proposed bill that was introduced in the New Jersey State Assembly on May 2, 2022, which would limit certain provisions in restrictive covenants, and a bill that was passed the following day by the...more
We wrote in January about a small change in Colorado law that could have large effects because it criminalized the enforcement of noncompete agreements that violate its general noncompete statute, C.R.S. § 8-2-113. Well, the...more
This week, we look at the increased focus on non-compete agreements across the country.
The Current Environment for Non-Compete Agreements (see video attached)
There has been a wave of legislation restricting non-compete...more