In your business, you have probably heard of most or all of these agreements.  You may even use them all.  And, often, these agreements will all be part of one document or contract.  Thus, these agreements can often get lumped together.  For example, people use “non-compete” to include a “non-solicit.”  Nonetheless, understanding the differences in […]

Non-competes are common.  You can find them among doctors and among fast food workers.  You may even have your own employees sign them.  But your business not only needs to keep employees, it needs to hire them.  So how do you hire someone that has a non-compete?  Like most things in business, hiring someone with […]

You may not have heard of the Lanham Act.  Even some lawyers are likely not familiar with it.  Lawyers that are aware of the Lanham Act may think of it primarily as having something to do with trademarks.  But this federal statute goes beyond trademarks and protects against certain kinds of false advertising.  And those […]

Whether you’re an employer or employee, you probably want to know whether the restrictive covenant such as a non-compete clause (“non-compete”) or non-solicitation clause (“non-solicit”) will be enforced.  Here are a dozen questions that could make or break your restrictive covenant. Do any non-compete agreements date from before May 11, 2011? If so, then Georgia’s […]

So far, no Georgia appellate court has interpreted Georgia’s 2011 Restrictive Covenants Act (“Act”).  But the federal courts have still made rulings on the Act.  While each case is different and none of these cases are binding on courts in Georgia, we can learn from these federal rulings.  Here are drafting lessons for your restrictive […]

You cannot enforce a non-compete agreement against every employee.  That may not be a surprise to you, and you may not care about enforcing non-competes against entry-level employees. But Georgia law can be more limited than employers may realize. Even employees that supervise other employees or have some customer-facing responsibilities may not be eligible for […]

You may.  Do you have valuable information that you have created and that you do not share publicly?  If so, you have something that you can probably protect as a trade secret. Here are answers to some questions you might have. What is a trade secret? Generally, a trade secret can be nearly anything that […]

Customized or proprietary software may be your company’s largest asset.  But is it a trade secret? Software is different than other types of trade secrets because both copyrights and patents might provide additional protection. Protecting software as a trade secret has some advantages to using a copyright or patent.  For example, trade secret protection does […]

It’s a common scenario: An employer requires employees to sign non-competes, confidentiality and non-solicitation agreements.  A sales employee leaves for a job with a competitor.  Before leaving, the employee takes files—perhaps by emailing files to a personal email address or by copying files to a flash drive.  The old employer investigates the employee’s computer and […]