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Under California law, non-compete provisions with an employee are generally unenforceable.  Statutory exceptions to this rule include the seller of a business’s goodwill or a membership interest in an LLC.  Courts have also recognized a judicial exception to this rule: where the non-compete is necessary to protect an employer’s trade secret information.  This judicial exception…

Section 16601 of the California Business and Professions Code provides a well-known exception to California’s statutory refusal to enforce contractual commitments not to compete.  Under that section, Courts will enforce “reasonable” restrictions on the seller of a business to engage in competition against the buyer of that business.  This is a commonsense approach: a buyer…

The Cruel Lessons of Wanke, Industrial, Commercial, Residential, Inc. v. Keck  (2012) 209 Cal.App.4th 1151

By:      Charles L. Post

Defendants in trade secret and unfair competition cases often have fewer resources than the plaintiff companies that bring them.  This is often the case in “classic” trade secret misappropriation scenarios: former employees form a new…

Courts are reluctant to protect customer lists when they consist of information from public sources (such as business directories).  (Morelife, Inc. v. Perry (1997) 56 Cal.App.4th 1514, 1521-1527.)  On the other hand, where the employer has expended time and effort identifying customers with particular needs or characteristics, courts will prohibit former employees from…

Now. 

Trade secrets (especially those relating to customers, pricing, costs and employees) can be a little like love taken for granted:  You don’t notice it until its gone. 

California law often protects such information (sometimes called “soft” trade secrets to distinguish them from product formulas and other “hard” trade secrets) from misuse by former employees…