The Massachusetts legislature ended its 2015-16 session last night without reaching a compromise on a bill to significantly reform the law of non-competition agreements in the Commonwealth. Negotiations continued late into the waning hours of the session, but legislators could not resolve the significant differences between the competing reform visions represented by the House and Senate bills.  Early reports indicate that the final disagreement was focused on the garden leave requirement,… More

As expected, the Massachusetts Senate last night passed comprehensive legislation on non-competition agreements that imposes significantly more stringent requirements and limitations on noncompetes than is present in the legislation passed by the House two weeks ago (which already would significantly alter current law).  The bill passed by the full Senate differs only slightly from the the proposal advanced by the Rules Committee earlier this week and described in this post.  … More

The Massachusetts Senate’s Committee on Rules is advancing legislation on noncompetes that differs markedly from the bill passed by the House and described here last week.  (Thank you to Brad MacDougall of AIM for bringing this to my attention.)  The bill, S.2418, is structured similarly to the House bill, but has the following significant differences:

• Noncompetes generally would be limited to 3 months in duration,…

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On June 29, 2016, the Massachusetts House of Representatives passed a comprehensive noncompete reform bill by a vote of 149-0.  Given that the Senate last year passed a somewhat similar bill (but the legislation stalled on the House side), it seems quite likely that a new noncompete law will be passed by the legislature before the close of the current session on July 31.  Whether the Governor will sign it is uncertain.  … More

After falling off the radar recently, it appears that non-compete reform is back on the agenda on Beacon Hill.  As reported by the Boston Globe, in a March 2, 2016 speech to the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo voiced support for placing restrictions on non-competition agreements.  Among the measures advanced by DeLeo were: (1) limiting the duration of non-competes to 1 year;… More

Late last month, the California Court of Appeal upheld a $180,000 award of sanctions against an employer for bringing a baseless trade secret misappropriation suit. While this case arose in California and involved California law, it involves concepts that have been recognized by Massachusetts judges and shows the possible consequences of the common impulse to file a lawsuit quickly and ask questions later.

In the California case, Cypress Semiconductor Corp.… More

A recent decision from Judge Kaplan in the MA Business Litigation Session highlights some interesting issues that arise when a noncompete case is complicated by the existence of an agreement to arbitrate claims. In Tibco Software, Inc. v. Zephyr Health, Inc. and Kevin Willoe,  Kaplan required a plaintiff seeking to enforce restrictive covenants to arbitrate – rather than litigate in court – claims against both the former employee and his new employer.… More

Here is significant news on the MA noncompete reform front.  Yesterday, as the Massachusetts legislature’s Joint Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technology was hearing testimony on the pros and cons of non-competition agreements, and the Governor’s Secretary of Housing and Economic Development was signalling a willingness to compromise, the Senate somewhat surprisingly passed a recently introduced compromise bill, by a vote of 31 to 7.  This is a significant departure from the outright ban proposed by the Governor and advocated by various groups.  … More

Here is an update on new developments in the few weeks since Governor Patrick introduced legislation that would largely abolish employment-based noncompetes in Massachusetts (described here).

As summarized by Russ Beck here, the MA legislature’s Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development has favorably reported out a previously-filed bill very similar to Gov. Patrick’s legislation banning noncompetes.  Interesting, Governor Patrick’s bill is being considered by a different committee,… More

Late last month, Senators Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) filed the Defend Trade Secrets Act, a bill that would create a federal trade secrets cause of action for civil litigants.  Currently, trade secrets litigation is a state law matter, meaning that most trade secrets litigation takes place in state courts, with their different statutes and court procedures.  But if this new Act passed, trade secrets protections would be enforced by a uniform law in the federal court system,… More