Restraints of trade and customer connections

It is well established that restraints of trade in employment contracts will not be enforced by a court if they are considered to be unreasonable.

Sometimes a restraint of trade is deemed to be unreasonable because it operates over too wide an area, or for too long a period of time. Sometimes a restraint of trade will be deemed unreasonable because it does not protect a legitimate interest of the employer – such as the protection of trade secrets or confidential information, or to prevent an employee with close connections to customers from taking those customers with them when they change employment.

With that in mind, consider the following restraint of trade provision used in a contract for a Senior Computer Technician who had frequent contact with his employer's customers: