Covenants Not to Compete A State-by-State Survey, 8th Edition

Get detailed guidance on the statutory and common law limits of covenant enforceability

This respected and authoritative three-volume treatise delivers the information practitioners need to analyze, draft, and confidently litigate covenants not to compete and other restrictive covenants in the employment, partnership, franchise, license, and sale-of-business contexts.

Courts all across the United States have resolved a number of questions of first impression that have a substantial and direct bearing on the enforceability of covenants not to compete in the nation today. Covenants Not to Compete: A State-by-State Survey discusses these decisions and identifies issues with significant splits of authority across the states, including whether the mere leasing of property to a competitor violates the terms of a noncompete clause where the clause fails to include language specifically prohibiting such action.

Additional Topics at the end of relevant chapters address hundreds of make-or-break issues, including: :

• Context characterization: service agreement versus employment context
• Effect of dissolution of employer
• Grace periods to cure breach not presumed
• Effect of entering into covenant in individual capacity

This treatise also addresses questions of first impression concerning new state statutes that limit the enforceability of covenants not to compete executed by employees in the broadcasting industries, and contains expanded analysis of covenant-protectable interests in both actual and potential customer relationships. Other topics discussed in detail include effect of abandonment of a particular line of business, as well as the effect of abandonment of customers; judicial modifiability, restrictions involving physicians and other health care professionals; and much more.

The new Eighth Editionis an indispensable reference providing insight and guidance on covenant enforceability. Important updates include expanded discussions of:

• The temporal and geographic limits of enforceable covenants not to compete
• Assignability of noncompetition covenants
• Consideration required to support a covenant executed well after the commencement of employment
• Protectable interests
• Remedies available for covenant breach, including injunctive relief and damages