Stopco's President is adamant that a departing Stopco
employee doesn't take any of Stopco's
clients. So Stopco's President came up with a nice, broad
non-compete which he made all employees sign upon employment with
Stopco. Stopco's non-compete provides:
Employee shall not ... directly or indirectly solicit, accept
business from, perform services for or disclose Stopco's
confidential information to any individual or entity that Stopco
provided products/services for during the period of Employee's
employment with Stopco ... regardless of whether Employee dealt
with or performed any function for the individual or entity during
Employee's employment with Stopco.
Stopco's President figured his non-compete would do the
trick, but he figured wrong. A recent Texas Court of Appeals
panel held that a non-compete clause similar to Stopco's clause
was overbroad and constituted an unreasonable restraint of
trade. The Court held a business's non-compete must not
only be
