Restrictive Covenants

In International Business Machines Corporation v. Naganayagam, 2017 WL 5633165 (S.D.N.Y. Nov. 21, 2017), the court explained and applied the “employee choice doctrine” pertaining to restrictive covenants in a contract of employment. Initially, the court found that the defendant breached his employment contract with IBM (his former employer) by proceeding to work for a competitor,…

Read More Court Explains the “Employee Choice Doctrine” Relating to Non-Competition Agreement
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In a decision illustrating New York’s strong public policy favoring an employee’s right to earn a living free from contractual restrictions, an upstate New York federal court recently rejected a company’s attempt to enforce a non-competition provision against a departing employee. The decision is Veramark Technologies Inc v. Bouk, decided April 2, 2014. After one-time Veramark employee…

Read More Court Rejects Employer’s Request for Preliminary Injunction Against Departing Employee and New Employer
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The New York Supreme Court (New York County) addressed, in OTG Management, LLC v. Konstantinidis, the propriety of injunctive relief in the restrictive covenant context. The court upheld an employment agreement’s non-solicitation, but not non-competition, provisions. In this case, plaintiff OTG hired Mr. Konstantinidis to be an operations manager for its food and beverage services in…

Read More Court Enforces Non-Solicitation, But Not Non-Competition, Employment Contract Provisions
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In Bessemer Trust Co., N.A. v. Branin (decided April 28, 2011), the New York Court of Appeals addressed the following question, which was certified to it by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in 618 F.3d 76: What degree of participation in a new employer’s solicitation of a former employer’s client by a…

Read More NY Court of Appeals Clarifies Circumstances Triggering Liability Arising From Solicitation of Former Employer’s Client
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