| Read Time: 2 minutes | #Noncompete Agreements

Texas Employment Agreements: To Obtain Reformation of Noncompete Agreements in Texas, Seek Injunctive Relief

In a recent case in Houston, the First District Court of Appeals upheld a trial court’s failure to reform an overly broad covenant not to compete. The covenant was overly broad in three respects: (a) there was no geographical limitation; (b) the covenant prohibited the employee from contacting all of his former employer’s customers, not merely the customers with whom the...

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| Read Time: < 1 minute | #Noncompete Agreements

Texas Noncompete Agreements: Difference Between Buy/Sell Agreements and Employer/Employee Agreements

In the context of one company purchasing another company, a non-compete agreement is far more enforceable than it would be in an employer/employee situation.  That’s hornbook law.  A good explanation for this was given in a Texas Supreme Court case:   In the case of covenants not to compete incident to the sale of a business, the seller’s promise...

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| Read Time: 2 minutes | #Noncompete Agreements

Texas Noncompete Agreements Enforceable? How Definite Must Promise to Provide Confidential Information Be?

Even after Sheshunoff clarified the law governing non-compete agreements, we continue to see agreements that cause us to scratch our heads and wonder whether they are enforceable. Sheshunoff made clear that, even in an at-will employment situation, a delay between the employee signing the non-compete agreement and receiving the information is not fatal to the agreement’s enforceability. However, “How strong...

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| Read Time: 2 minutes | #Noncompete Agreements

Texas Covenant Not to Compete Agreements Law: Can An Employer Protect Its Customer Relationships?

In several states, an employer may–via a non-compete agreement–prevent a departing employee from taking advantage of the relationships the employee developed with the former employer’s customers.  This is true whether or not the identities of the former employer’s customers are "confidential." In those states, therefore, the former employer can successfully contend, "We introduced you to our customers and you’ve...

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| Read Time: < 1 minute | #Trade Secrets

“What if the secrets are all in my head?”

Very often, a departing employee won’t take customer lists or other confidential documents with him, but a lot of the information he has memorized will be considered by his former employer to be confidential. Customer names and contact information, for example, are routinely memorized by sales representatives. Nevertheless, the sales representative’s employer typically contends that such information is confidential....

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| Read Time: < 1 minute | #Trade Secrets

Is Attorneys Eyes Only Information Reviewable By In-House Counsel?

In trade secret cases, the parties routinely produce confidential and proprietary information to each other. Typically, a protective order is entered that permits the parties to designate information as confidential (which means, inter alia, that it can only be used in the litigation) and states how the information is to be treated. Super-sensitive information can be designated as “Attorneys...

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