In a recent opinion, the Delaware Court of Chancery refused to enforce or blue-pencil restrictive covenants imposed after a national restoration company acquired a local restoration business. Although it is an unpublished opinion, the case presents another example of the Delaware Court of Chancery refusing to blue pencil an overbroad restrictive covenant agreement.
In a bombshell ruling last year that upended longstanding Delaware law, the Delaware Chancery Court ruled in Ainslie v. Cantor Fitzgerald, L.P., 2023 WL 106924 (Del. Ch. Jan. 4, 2023), that forfeiture-for-competition clauses, under which departing employees must forfeit certain long-term incentive compensation if they join a competitor, are akin to post-employment noncompetes and other restraints of trade. As a result, the Chancery Court determined these forfeiture provisions should be analyzed under a reasonableness standard rather than the employee choice doctrine ...
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Recent Updates
- Delaware Refuses to Blue Pencil Overbroad Restrictive Covenants Following Business Acquisition
- Virginia Senate Bill 128 Adds Health Care Professionals to Virginia’s Noncompete Restrictions
- When the Deal Closes, the Trade Secrets Don't: Enforcing Sale-of-Business Covenants Under Judicial Scrutiny
- Tennessee Enacts New Restrictions on Noncompete Agreements
- Maine Restricts Noncompetes for Health Care Practitioners