Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Georgia Ruling Illustrates Difficulty with Relying on Blue-Pencil Rule

One of the issues I see most frequently when litigating non-compete disputes involves what's known as the blue-pencil rule. The rule actually has a few separate iterations to it, but for the layperson it's the idea that a court might be able to revise or narrow an overbroad agreement and still enforce it (or at least part of it).

(I wrote a state-by-state guide to the blue-pencil rule more than 8 years ago. It may not be entirely accurate now, as I don't routinely update old posts. It remains one of my most viewed pages, with nearly 40,000 unique viewers having read it (i.e., clicked through to it)).

Advising clients about how courts may deploy the blue-pencil rule is a challenge because in many places - including Illinois -its use is discretionary. This makes rendering predictions somewhat challenging, particularly since very few non-compete scenarios are alike.

There's also a separate problem. My experience is the rule is somewhat judge-specific. By that I mean, different judges apply the rule with different philosophies in mind. Many (most?) don't like to insert themselves in the contract drafting process. Others see themselves as arbiters of equity, charged with a more activist role to do "what's right" under the circumstances. Unless you have direct experience on the precise issue with the same judge, that makes predictive counseling an enormous chore.

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The reason I write on, and revisit, this topic now is due to two separate events. First, from Georgia, we encountered LifeBrite Laboratories, LLC v. Cooksey, No. 1:15-cv-4309. In that case, the district court evaluated the blue-pencil rule in Georgia in light of the 2011 change to Georgia law. Previously, courts had not allowed any sort of blue-penciling. If a covenant was overbroad, the entire thing failed. Georgia's new law gave courts the ability "to modify a covenant that is otherwise void." But the court noted that the new law did not define the term "modify."

It had a choice. Did the term mean to remove offending language or make substantive changes of the court's own accord? The court, having relied on Georgia's common law before the statutory change, chose the former and not the latter. I would guess this came as a surprise to Georgia lawyers, many of whom likely assumed "modify" granted the court broader discretion. I don't think we've heard the last on this subject. LifeBrite isn't controlling in Georgia state courts.

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I also write because of an appeal I have pending in Illinois. At least one district of the Appellate Court of Illinois has explained its law of severability in terms of non-compete agreements. I happen to have the very issue pending before the same district, so we'll see if the court expounds on its prior case law. The law of severability states that even if some part of a contract is unenforceable, a court may enforce the rest of the agreement "in favor of a party who did not engage in serious misconduct if the performance as to which the agreement is unenforceable is not an essential part of the agreed exchange."

The italicized language has been held to ruin an entire non-compete when one clause is unenforceable. That means, for instance, that an overbroad customer non-solicitation covenant could imperil an otherwise enforceable non-disclosure agreement. Or vice versa. And given the crackdown in Illinois on overbroad non-disclosure agreements, I expect the law of severability may rear its head time and again.

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As a quick primer, recall that there are several permutations to blue-penciling and severability. The terms are important:

1. Blue-penciling. This doctrine is what the Georgia court in LifeBrite endorsed. A court can remove offending language and save the balance of the covenant. That would mean, for instance, deleting a particular county in which the employee never worked but which is part of the restriction.

2. Equitable modification/Reformation. This is a broader doctrine, which allows courts to rewrite an overbroad agreement. It is less technical and interjects the court in the drafing process.

3. Red-penciling. This is a very strict, pro-employee doctrine. If the covenant is overbroad, the court will strike it and not change it in any respect. Nevada is a red-pencil state, as we found out last year.

4. Severability. As discussed above, this doctrine means a court can strike an entire restrictive covenant but save the rest of the agreement. In Illinois, I think it's at best an open question now how the law of severability applies to restrictive covenants. Probably case-by-case, depending on the language of the agreement.

5. Step-Down Clauses. A step-down clause provides that if a court determines one covenant is unenforceable, then a different term or restriction applies. For instance, a step-down clause may say that "if the court determines an 18-month non-solicitation restriction is overbroad, then the parties expressly agree to a 6-month covenant in its place." This, in theory, eliminates the court's job in rewriting a contract. I wrote once on this topic. Notably, the district court in LifeBrite stated it would have enforced a step-down clause providing an alternative provision to the overbroad clause that rendered the agreement unenforceable. (See FN 78 at page 21).

Friday, February 24, 2017

The Reading List (2017, No. 8): An Example of How Differently Courts Treat Non-Competes

Non-Compete and Trade Secret News for the week ended February 24, 2017

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Overbroad Non-Competes in Virginia

This week's first two updates could be called a Tale of Two Non-Competes.

A federal district court in Virginia ruled that an employee's non-compete agreement, ancillary to a stock option award, was unenforceable because of its overly broad geographic scope. This case illustrates the perils of linking a restrictive covenant to customers or markets about which an employee has "confidential information." For starters, that may require a court to assess how the agreement treats that defined term - a notorious plot of unruly thatch.

But additionally, a restrictive covenant that is drafted this way often lacks objective parameters. In NVR, Inc. v. Nelson, the covenant's geographic term extended to areas "from which [the employee] received...Confidential Information." Because he received information digitally and since there was no way to tell from where the information originated, the non-compete was overbroad. A copy of the opinion denying the employer's temporary restraining order motion is available here.

Preliminary Injunction in New Jersey

The employer fared better with pursuing injunctive relief in Menasha Packaging Co. v. Pratt Industries, a New Jersey case in which the district court applied Illinois law. This dispute stems from the movement of three ex-Menasha employees to Pratt Industries during the period in which Menasha's client, Mondelez, had put up a packaging contract for bid. Unlike the NVR case, the competition and the immediate threat to Menasha were more tangible and apparent from the record. Menasha also sought very limited enforcement of the restrictive covenant, despite some dispute about whether the contract was facially overbroad. The court enjoined the employees' work with Mondelez, on Pratt's behalf, for the 18-month non-solicit term. The case illustrates the wisdom of narrowing the dispute and seeking relief that is directly tailored to the conduct in question. A copy of the New Jersey' court's preliminary injunction opinion is available here.

Non-Competes in Bankruptcy

The United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois held in United Providers, Inc. v. Pagan that a claim for intentional breach of contract is dischargeable in bankruptcy. The breach arose from the debtor's alleged violation of an employee no-hire agreement in the medical billing field.

The nondischargeability provision of the Bankruptcy Code for "willful and malicious" injuries, Section 523(a)(6), requires that the breach of contract also give rise to an independent tort claim (e.g., breach of fiduciary duty, trade secrets misappropriation). And even then, a court's finding of nondischargeability is not guaranteed. The court's opinion makes sense because many breach-of-contract scenarios give rise to an economically efficient result, regardless of whether the employer likes it or feels as if it has been the victim of a maliciously designed plot. Only if the underlying conduct is intended to produce a harmful result will a viable nondischargeability argument arise. The opinion is available here.

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One of the more interesting trade-secret filings in a long time comes from the Central District of California, where Songkick has amended its suit against Live Nation Entertainment and Ticketmaster to allege trade secrets theft. The 91-page Complaint is quite a read, but the pertinent allegations of trade-secret theft appear to rest on a departed executive's misappropriation of thousands of documents in order to benefit Ticketmaster's "Artist Services" division, which is now known as OnTour. Consumers may be familiar with this type of service, since it promotes ticket pre-sales, fan clubs, and more direct fan engagement. Songkick's trade-secret theft allegations bolster a more robust antitrust claim against Live Nation, which vigorously has disputed the veracity of the accusations.

For those interested in exploring the data concerning non-competes' impact on wages and mobility, please see the University of Michigan Working Paper entitled Locked In? The Enforceability of Covenants not to Compete and the Careers of High-Tech Workers. The paper details a number of interesting conclusions, including that technology workers in higher enforcement states (think Florida) earn lower wages than their counterparts in lower enforcement states (think California). This at least seems to support the notion that employers do not share the marginal gains from non-compete regimes with their existing employees, a theoretical justification many on the pro-enforcement side frequently offer.

Friday, February 17, 2017

The Reading List (2017, No. 7): Claims of Continuing Misappropriation and the Defend Trade Secrets Act

Non-Compete and Trade Secret News for the week ended February 17, 2017

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Choice-of-Forum Clauses

The Illinois case of Aon, PLC v. Heffernan, No. 1:16-cv-1924, shows the difficulty of transferring a non-compete case in federal court when the parties have agreed in advance to a forum-selection clause. This difficult became more pronounced after the Supreme Court's Atlantic Marine decision. And the presence of a California defendant does not appear to alleviate this difficulty. Put simply, a defendant's motion to transfer venue, in the face of a clear forum-selection clause, is the exception and must cite a clear public-interest rationale. The transfer decision in Heffernan is available here.

For those wanting a deeper analytical dive into forum-selection clauses post-Atlantic Marine, please read Professor Stephen Sachs' article in the Hastings Law Journal.

Defend Trade Secrets Act

In my second weekly column of the year, I alluded to the New Jersey case of Chubb INA Holdings v. Chang, No. 3:16-cv-02354, which presented an interesting procedural question about the Defend Trade Secrets Act. Specifically, the case raised the issue of whether the DTSA applies to potential acts of misappropriation that arose before the Act went to effect.

The key fact concerning the DTSA's reach are simple: certain ex-Chubb employees allegedly downloaded critical sales and operational information before leaving Chubb. Importantly, this occurred before May 11, 2016 when the DTSA went into effect. But Chubb alleged something else: that the employees inevitably would use that misappropriated information for their new employer's benefit. And that allegation implicated concerns after May 11. This illustrates that the concept of "misappropriation" embodies three separate and distinct branches of conduct: (1) improper acquisition, (2) improper disclosure, and (3) improper use. Because Chubb (at least in part) relied on the "use" branch, the DTSA claim was viable at the initial filing stage. Put another way, each improper use (if proven) would be a separate wrong and independent of the initial acquisition that enabled the use.

The opinion on Chubb's motion for preliminary injunction (which was denied) is available here.

Contract Acceptance

The Third Circuit Court of Appeals has rejected the argument of two ex-ADP employees, who contended that they did not "agree" to non-compete obligations by electronically accepting stock awards electronically on ADP's website. The non-competes were embedded within the electronic documents that each employee signed online. As with many of these click-wrap agreements, the employees acknowledged reading the contracts. The agreements further noted that the non-compete restrictions were a condition of accepting the stock award. The court had no trouble rejecting the employees' novel defense about contract interpretation. A contrary ruling potentially would have lead to absurd results in other cases.

You can read the Third Circuit's unpublished opinion in ADP, LLC v. Lynch, No. 16-3617, by clicking here.

Judge Gorsuch and Trade Secrets

For Supreme Court watchers, Judge Neil Gorsuch of the Tenth Circuit has written one rather notable opinion that delves into trade secrets law. His discussion of Utah's trade secret statute, and the availability of unjust enrichment damages, comprises only part of his opinion for the 10th Circuit in Russo v. Ballard Medical Products, but it is nonetheless an interesting read.

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A few interesting new law review articles have appeared recently.

Jim Pooley, a former Deputy Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization, published The Myth of the Trade Secret Troll: Why the Defend Trade Secrets Act Improves the Protection of Commercial Information. Mr. Pooley addresses and refutes many of the arguments advanced, particularly in the academy, against the DTSA.

On the non-compete side, Kristen Almond published in the Louisiana Law Review an extensive analysis of that State's quirky non-compete law. Having advised on Louisiana law recently (and frequently in the past), articles like this are essential for a practitioner's full understanding of the law from all perspectives. The publication is called Equalizing the Threat of Noncompete Agreements: Solutions Beyond Louisiana's Tangled Web of Nullity.

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Finally, next Friday I am speaking at the University of Denver at CLE International's Defend Trade Secrets Act conference. I will be presenting with John Marsh on the topic "The Search for Uniformity and Understanding: Reconciling Differences Among the States." I plan to use my upcoming March monthly column to discuss the CLE International conference and the impressions I gained. Many thanks to Mike Greco of Fisher Phillips, who is chairing this event.

Friday, February 10, 2017

The Reading List (2017, No. 6): Surprise Result on Blue-Penciling Rule in Georgia

Non-Compete and Trade Secrets News for the week ended February 10, 2017

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Georgia Blue-Penciling of Restrictive Covenants

Last December, a federal district court in Georgia limited courts' ability to modify overbroad restrictive covenants. More on this significant case in my end-of-the-month column, but LifeBrite Labs. v. Cooksey, No. 1:15-cv-4309, merits a brief mention this week.

The court held that Georgia's relatively new state statute concerning non-competes, which permits courts to "modify a covenant that is otherwise void and unenforceable," allowed it only to excise language that rendered the agreement overbroad. In other words, courts could not rewrite the contract, or supply it with any new terms, as part of its statutory ability to modify agreements. The court relied principally on Georgia's existing case law in the sale-of-business context and the rule that it must construe statutes in derogation of the common-law narrowly. Put simply, "modify" means blue-penciling. The opinion and order, with its very insightful analysis, is available here.

(FordHarrison also comments on this case in its Non-Compete News.)

Military Contractor Trade Secrets

The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed a summary judgment of a trade-secrets claim between military contractors, Advantor Systems of Florida and DRS Technical Services, Inc. The disputed technology involved intrusion detection systems that Advantor originally sold certain United States Air Force bases. When the Air Force elected to consolidate its security systems across all AF bases, Advantor was left out in the cold. DRS won the contract and dumped Advantor as a potential sub-contractor during negotiations. The parties had signed a transactional confidentiality agreement and a one-year "no direct hire" agreement that precluded either from directly soliciting the other's employees.

The ruling is rather lengthy (53 pages) and since it's unpublished, it does not merit an extended discussion. However, it is worth reading the passage where the court of appeals reverses summary judgment on the trade-secrets claim based on the Air Force's disclosure of technical manuals and drawings to DRS. Those manuals were necessary for DRS' continued service of Advantor equipment previously sold to the AF (recall that Advantor used to supply systems to several, but not all, AF bases). The analysis discusses a rarely litigated question concerning the term "misappropriation": whether the defendant (DRS) had "reason to know" that a third-party (AF) had some limitation on its ability to disseminate information obtained in confidence (from Advantor).

A copy of the Eleventh Circuit's unpublished opinion is available here.

Choice-of-Law Clauses

California courts have continued a trend of invalidating choice-of-law clauses with regard to employee restrictive covenants. The general principle is that courts will enforce such clauses unless the contractually chosen law is "contrary to the fundamental policy of the forum state." In Stryker Sales Corp. v. Zimmer Biomet, No. 1:16-cv-01670, a California federal district court found a public-policy rift between Michigan and California law concerning non-competes. No surprise there. Michigan is a fairly typical state when it comes to non-compete law, employing a reasonableness test to restrictive covenants. But California bars them almost entirely, which led the court to invalidate the choice-of-law clause in Stryker Sales.

This case illustrates why obtaining the proper forum, and enforcing forum selection clauses, is so crucial to non-competes directed at parties with some California connection. The original action was brought in Michigan, but venue wasn't proper there. A copy of the decision is available here.

Restoration Hardware Trade Secrets Suit

Multiple outlets have reported on a trade-secrets suit between Restoration Hardware and Crate and Barrel. The Complaint, filed in California state court, alleges that Crate and Barrel CEO and former Restoration Hardware employee Doug Diemoz tried to hire other RH executives in violation of a no-hire agreement. According to the Chicago Tribune, Diemoz is alleged to have used Gmail to communicate with RH employees, stating in one such e-mail "that damn non solicitation!" Diemoz' supposed recruitment allegedly ties into another employee's downloading of confidential information about RH's food and beverage operations in Chicago.

The crux of the trade-secret allegation is a little odd. RH seems to be claiming that Crate and Barrel is attempting to replicate its "model" of providing food-and-beverage services in conjunction with its other retail offerings. I suppose that something about the roll-out of those operations could be secret, but it seems like an allegation primed for a reverse-engineering defense. RH's pilot program was launched at the Three Arts Club in Chicago. Before its conversion (it was badly rundown), I lived at the Three Arts Club for a summer in my early 20s and consumed an untold number of alcoholic beverages - not the coffee drinks RH is now peddling to its shoppers.

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In other news, Holland & Hart reports on a $5.175 million trade-secrets verdict it obtained in Utah on behalf of Hydro Engineering, Inc. against Riveer Environmental. The case stemmed from Riveer's hiring of a key salesperson who had a non-compete with Hydro. The verdict summary illustrates, once again, that e-mail communications among the defendant's employees were central to the plaintiff's proofs.

Friday, February 3, 2017

The Reading List (2017, No. 5): Plaintiffs and Courts Avoid the DTSA's Ex Parte Seizure Order

Non-Compete and Trade Secret News for the week ended February 3, 2017

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Defend Trade Secrets Act

I alluded to this case in my prior post.

But we have another federal district court case that discusses the Defend Trade Secrets Act and the ex parte seizure order. In Magnesita Refractories Co. v. Mishra, the court found that a temporary restraining order issued under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 65, which mandated the seizure of a defendant's laptop, did not require the plaintiff to follow the process outlined in Section 1836(b)(2) of the DTSA.

This is about as in-the-weeds as you can get, but it reaffirms the much larger point: courts are going to issue TROs that have the same effect as the seizure order. And if that's the protocol, then the seizure order may - as I predicted - be more bark than bite. A copy of Judge Simon's ruling, which is truly for nerds like me, is available here.

Non-Recruitment Clauses

Tesla Motors has sued a director of its Autopilot program, Sterling Anderson, claiming misappropriation of "hundreds of gigabytes" of confidential information and improper solicitation of Tesla employees. The Complaint reads like a typical bad divorce between a key employee and a jilted employer, with some fairly serious allegations related to efforts to conceal electronic evidence and pre-termination "cloak and dagger" meetings to plan a competing venture. In California, where the suit is based, post-employment restrictions on soliciting employees are enforceable. That's the centerpiece of the contract claim.

The case is pending in Santa Clara Superior Court. A copy of the Complaint is available here. For a detailed news account, see this article in The Verge.

Sixth Circuit Appeal

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals this week heard oral argument in the case of Stryker Corp. v. Ridgeway, No. 16-1654. A jury in the Western District of Michigan entered a verdict in favor of Stryker in the amount of $745,000, which was based in part on Ridgeway's breach of a non-compete agreement. Among other things, the appeal raises a very important choice-of-law/choice-of-forum issue concerning Louisiana law. That state's law is very favorable to employees, but the district court did not apply it. (The district court ruling on the choice-of-law issue is at 2015 WL 5682317.)

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Russell Beck discusses in his Fair Competition blog post the renewed efforts at non-compete reform in Massachusetts. This has become an annual rite of passage. Seyfarth Shaw discusses the same proposals floating around the Massachusetts house and senate.

IPWatchdog has posted an article entitled How to Write Enforceable Non-Compete Agreements. This is a very nice, concise summary of employers' considerations in deciding whether and how to use restrictive covenants. A number of helpful quotes from some of my colleagues...

Other colleagues of mine, from Seyfarth Shaw, have posted their Top Developments/Headlines in Trade Secret, Computer Fraud, and Non-Compete Law in 2016. This post is notably longer than my year-end list and gives a few more illustrative cases - particularly on non-competes and federal computer fraud claims.