Today I attended the Mass Technology Leadership Council’s 2008 Annual Meeting, at which several speakers, including Governor Deval Patrick, spoke about economic development strategies, the state of the technology industry in Massachusetts, and the like. I attended the meeting in part to see whether the recent noncompete debate (described here and here) would receive any attention. I was quite interested to find that it did. Following his speech, the Governor took questions from the audience, including an inquiry about the Patrick administration’s “position” on noncompetes. The governor responded that he is “hearing” from some quarters that noncompetes may be “a little too stringent.” He said that he is willing to look at the issue. At the same time, he said, his administration is not driving this issue; rather some in the tech community are focused on the issue and are asking the administration to focus on it as well. Essentially he indicated that he is noncommittal and is open to arguments pro and con on the issue.
Stay tuned for further developments on this issue