Waymo Loses Damages Expert, Struggling v. Uber
In the latest chapter of the Waymo v. Uber trade secret litigation, the Court has dealt Waymo yet another blow, this time excluding its damages expert. Let’s take a look. To briefly recap: Waymo is a...
View ArticleExiled LLC Member Wins Declaratory Judgment and $1 Million in Wrongful...
Question: When two members of a privately held LLC get together and conspire to wrongfully expel the third member, what is the worst possible course of action they can take? Answer: Insist that the...
View ArticleReevaluating Non-Compete Agreements in the Auto Sales Industry (yes, AutoNation)
It’s time to take a hard look at non-compete agreements in the car business. Let’s use an example: AutoNation, the Fort-Lauderdale-based car industry giant and Fortune 500 company. For the past twenty...
View ArticleDOJ Aggressively Policing No-Poaching Agreements
In a surprising continuation of Obama-era policy, the Trump DOJ has announced that it will pursue criminal action against firms using no-poaching agreements. On January 18th, 2018, while speaking at an...
View ArticleCBRE Files Massive Theft of Trade Secrets Case Against Former Broker
Real estate giant CBRE has filed a massive theft of trade secrets lawsuit against former longtime broker Richard Rizika. In its complaint filed in the United States District Court for the Central...
View ArticleNational Non-Compete Update – March 2018
IBM & Its Diversity Trade Secrets: IBM had sued its former Chief Diversity Officer for moving to Microsoft and breaching a non-compete agreement. At issue: IBM claimed that Lindsay Rae McIntyre was...
View ArticleDOJ Announces First No-Poaching Settlement
On April 3, 2018, the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division announced the first no-poaching antitrust settlement of the Trump Administration. Previously, senior DOJ officials had made public...
View ArticleTinder Files Basically Frivolous IP Lawsuit v. Bumble
In an ongoing battle between rival dating apps, Tinder is suing Bumble for patent infringement, trademark infringement and theft of trade secrets. In a complaint filed on March 16, 2018, Match Group,...
View ArticleNon-Compete News & Notes – August 2018
It’s August of 2018 and non-compete agreements are still rampant in American markets. Not surprisingly, non-compete litigation remains big business for management-side lawyers, particularly at large...
View ArticleWeWork Runs Scared, Drops Abusive Non-Competes After State AG Threat
In a turn of events that should surprise no one, the bro-ed out start-up WeWork has caught heat for abusing employee non-compete agreements. That’s right. While holding itself as new wave, disruptive,...
View ArticleJanitor Non-Compete Agreements. Yep. That’s a Thing.
Proving once again that corporate greed knows no limits, real estate firm Cushman Wakefield recently sued a former janitor, Sonia Mercado, for violating a non-compete agreement. The Washington Post...
View Article2019: Non-Compete Abuse, Civil Rights, Morality, and Reform
Since starting my own law firm more than seven years ago, I have done one type of work more than any other: Defend poor people against bogus, abusive, illegal non-compete agreements. In all fairness, I...
View ArticleCorporate (Mis)Use of Non-Compete Agreements as Insurance Against Ex-Employee...
Around 2010, non-compete abuse in America reached peak absurdity. As I have explained many times: This was a a product of the following factors: (1) The internet and the information age. (2) Widespread...
View ArticleEmployee Non-Compete Agreements as Section 1 Violations
To anyone with even a rudimentary understanding of antitrust law, it is obvious that employee non-compete agreements are at least potentially problematic. By definition, non-compete agreements are...
View ArticleVirgina Bans Many Non-Compete Agreements
Virginia has passed non-compete reform, banning non-compete agreements for certain low and middle income workers. The state joins several others that have recently enacted new laws intended to curb...
View Article