Non-Competition Agreements & Trade Secrets
Capabilities
- Preparing protective documentation, including patent assignment and confidentiality commitments, to safeguard companies developing new products and processes;
- Preparing non-disclosure agreements for use in employment relationships and in the negotiation of business sales, and in other commercial settings;
- Assessing risks of hiring employees subject to restrictive covenants from former employers and recommending strategies for avoiding or resolving disputes;
- Addressing antitrust aspects of non-competition agreements and other restrictive covenants, including non-disclosure and confidentiality agreements as part of licensing arrangements;
- Preparing noncompetition agreements and litigating claims concerning them with respect to employees, buyers and sellers of businesses, joint ventures, partners and franchisees;
- Preparing and litigating non-solicitation agreements involving customers, employees and others;
- Prosecuting and defending claims of employee raiding and piracy;
- Advising about assignability of non-competition and related agreements in reorganizations and business sales, arranging for substitute safeguards, and assessing the adequacy of such protections in due diligence reviews;
- Advising about, and litigating claims concerning, obligations of service personnel under “no hire” agreements and the respective rights of temporary staffing agencies and their customers to leased workers;
- Advising about, and litigating claims concerning, data misappropriation actionable under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and state computer theft statutes;
- Prosecuting and defending claims concerning usurpation of business opportunities and misuse of confidential business assets by former fiduciaries and other personnel;
- Advising about, and assisting with litigation involving, cross-border enforcement of restrictive covenants both nationally and internationally and creating protective programs for multi-state use;
- Advising and litigating with respect to restrictive covenants and claw-backs in stock option and other benefit plans;
- Enforcing non-competition rights in arbitration settings and obtaining or resisting applications for interim judicial relief;
- Planning against and investigating trade secret theft, including through data-recovery techniques; and
- Partnering with our intellectual property group colleagues to provide full-service protection of intellectual property rights.
