Trade Secrets & Employee Mobility

A recent decision from the United States Court for the District of New Jersey demonstrates how a corporation's tenacity in seeking electronically stored information despite the intransigence and apparent spoliation of evidence by a former employee and his new company led to positive results for the corporation.

States vary widely in their willingness to enforce noncompetition agreements. Illinois, for example, will enforce a noncompetition agreement, but only after fairly rigorous judicial scrutiny. Notwithstanding such scrutiny, Illinois employers can draft enforceable noncompetition agreements.

The New York State Supreme Court recently shot down a request to enjoin two former salesmen and their new employer from tortiously interfering with a real estate investment firm's business, from interfering or contacting its customers or using or exploiting its trade secrets.

Many New York attorneys, when seeking a preliminary injunction against a party that has misappropriated their clients' trade secrets, will argue that a presumption of irreparable harm to their clients automatically arises upon the determination that a trade secret has been misappropriated. A recent decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, however, holds that misappropriation of trade secrets does not automatically lead to irreparable harm. The aggrieved party only faces irreparable harm if the misappropriator will disseminate the secrets to a wider audience or otherwise irreparably impair the value of the secrets.

Penthouse Club, the adult nightclub chain, filed a suit seeking a temporary restraining order and other injunctive relief against a former director for violating a noncompete and nondisclosure agreement.

In a recent case, Florida's Third District Court of Appeals reversed the issuance of a temporary injunction because it failed to specify with reasonable particularity the conduct being enjoined.

As the enforcement of non-competition agreements becomes more crucial than ever, some employers are including provisions that require or promise payments to the former employees during the post-employment period of non-competition. If properly crafted, such a payment may act as the additional consideration needed for the promise not to compete and may dissipate the former employee's argument of undue hardship during the non-competition period. Employers promising to make such payments must be prepared to follow through with their promises, as the Eighth Circuit recently held.

The Florida Second District Court of Appeals' recent decision in Fiberglass Coatings v. Interstate Chemical, Inc., Case No. 2DO8-1847 (Fla. 2d DCA, February 27, 2009), illustrates an interesting defense to a tortious interference claim. Absent evidence that the new employer induced the former employee to violate his non-compete agreement, merely hiring an employee whom the employer knows to be in violation of a non-compete agreement may not be sufficient to sustain a tortious interference claim under Florida law.

A study released by Ponemon Institute LLC on February 23, 2009 confirms a human resources truism: departing employees frequently steal company data while heading out the door. The study contains a wealth of other interesting statistics about employee data thefts.

In a decision, dated January 26, 2009, in the matter Epiq Systems, Inc. v. Hartie, Index No. 111950/08, the Supreme Court of the State of New York, New York County, by Judicial Hearing Officer (and retired Justice) Ira Gammerman, denied a preliminary injunction in aid of arbitration sought by plaintiffs Epiq Systems, Inc. and related companies (collectively, "Epiq"). Epiq claimed that it faced inevitable disclosure of its trade secrets by three individual defendants formerly employed at Epiq and their new employer Kurtzman Carson Consultants LLC ("KCC") with respect to three computer programs, including one web-based system, developed and used by Epiq to solicit ballots and tabulate ballot results in Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, and in analogous foreign proceedings, involving widely-held public securities.