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This is not your standard non-compete case: Just days ago, the Eleventh Circuit handed down its opinion in an extremely complex dispute related to shopping plazas, anchor tenants and restrictive covenants. Let’s take a look: Winn-Dixie is a regional grocery store chain based in Jacksonville, Florida. It has hundreds of supermarkets throughout the Southeast. In … Continue reading
A recent case out of Minnesota raises a number of non-compete and trade secret issues. Let’s take a look: In 2005, Robert Wilcox was hired as the general manager of ground handling services at Minneapolis St. Paul Airport (“MSP”) for a company called Integrated Airline Services Alliance. In 2006, Menzies Aviation purchased Integrated. Menzies bills … Continue reading
Call it a trend. These days, non-compete litigation is everywhere: All across the country and in every industry imaginable. Some industries generate more non-compete litigation than others. And perhaps no industry has more non-compete litigation than the healthcare industry. In any field that is remotely connected to healthcare or medicine, you will find widespread use … Continue reading
Strangely enough, the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida has become a hotbed of non-compete litigation. That may simply be a product of national trends: As Dow Jones recently reported, companies are becoming increasingly aggressive on the non-compete front. More and more companies are requiring employees to sign non-compete, non-disclosure and … Continue reading
Fort Lauderdale-based MAKO Surgical Corporation has filed a lawsuit against a former employee, Jeffrey Gellman, and his new company, Blue Belt Technologies, Inc., alleging the parties conspired to steal MAKO’s confidential information and clients. MAKO is a company that is principally engaged in the design, manufacture and sale of robotic surgical systems. These systems use … Continue reading
A recent non-compete dispute in Florida raises questions about the concept of legitimate business interests under Florida law. Until October, prominent Florida chef Domenica Macchia ran the kitchen at a St. Petersburg restaurant called Three Birds Tavern. After leaving Three Birds last fall, Macchia became the chef at another local restaurant called Beak’s Old Florida. … Continue reading
On Friday, the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against eBay accusing the company of entering a non-compete pact with software maker Intuit. Under the terms of the alleged secret deal, both companies agreed to refrain from recruiting or hiring each other’s employees. According to the DOJ, both companies aggressively policed their respective workforces to … Continue reading
Interesting non-compete news out of Weymouth, Massachusetts (a small city about twenty miles south of Boston). Back in September 2009, a Boston-area dentist Gerald Maher sold his practice to a newly formed company called Dental Wellness. As part of the transaction, Maher agreed (1) to refrain from practicing dentistry within a 15-mile radius of Dental … Continue reading
In today’s America, non-compete agreements have become ubiquitous. Everybody has one. The wine salesman. The disc jockey. The advertising executive. Even the maid. One of the most obscene examples of the widespread use (and abuse) of non-compete agreements is that of non-competes in the healthcare industry. Many doctors are either driven out of town – … Continue reading
In Florida, non-compete agreements are governed by Florida Statute 542.335. The statute indicates that non-compete agreements can only be used to protect legitimate business interests. Although the Statute does not claim to be exhaustive, it does spell out a number of such interests. These interests include relationships with customers. In characteristic fashion, many companies suing … Continue reading
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