Here at the Law Office of Vincent Miletti, Esq. and the home of the #UnusuallyMotivated movement, we take pride as a resilient and dependable legal services firm, providing such services in both a traditional and online, web-based environment. With mastered specialization in areas such as Employment and Labor Law, Intellectual Property (IP) (trademark, copyright, patent), Entertainment Law, and e-Commerce (Supply Chain, Distribution, Fulfillment, Standard Legal & Regulatory), we provide a range of legal services including, but not limited to traditional legal representation (litigation, mediation, arbitration, opinion letters, and advisory), non-litigated business legal representation and legal counsel, and unique, online legal services such as smart forms, mobile training, legal marketing, and development.

Still, here at Miletti Law®, we feel obligated to enlighten, educate, and create awareness, free of charge, about how these issues and many others affect our unusually motivated® readers and/or their businesses. Accordingly, to achieve this goal, we have committed ourselves to creating authoritative, trustworthy, & distinctive content. Usually, this content is featured as videos posted on our YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtvUryqkkMAJLwrLu2BBt6w and blogs that are published on our website WWW.MILETTILAW.COM. With that, the ball is in your court and you have an effortless obligation to subscribe to the channel and sign up for the Newsletter on the website, which encompasses the best way to ensure that you stay in the loop and feel the positive impact of the knowledge bombs that we drop here!

As the authoritative force in Employment Law, it only seemed right to introduce one of the many upcoming series in which we introduce a variety of topics that looks to educate and deliver in a manner that only Miletti Law® can. In this regard, this blog is Part XVIII of our ongoing series on “Trade Secret Misappropriation & Restrictive Covenant Claims.” In Part XVII, we hammered on “Risk of Irreparable Harm Risk if Injunctive Relief is not Granted” as a factor that would determine whether a court would grant injunctive relief or not. Regarding this, we mentioned that a court might grant or fail to grant injunctive relief based on the prong of irreparable harm to the plaintiff’s business. In this case, the employer is required to show the court that it would be in danger of severe and irreparable harm to the interests of its business, for which monetary damages would not remedy if the employee’s conduct remains unchecked. Accordingly, we said that this underscores the need for employers to make sure that every employee acknowledges, during the signing of a restrictive covenant agreement, that they understand the employer would suffer irreparable harm in the case of a threat of breach or a breach itself.

As a continuation of our discussion, we have hammered on the “Likelihood of Success on the Merits” as another factor that determines the success or failure of being granted injunctive relief in our blog titled “Seeking Injunctive Relief; Likelihood of Success on the Merits” and Part XVIII of the series.

Seeking Injunctive Relief; Likelihood of Success on the Merits

Whether the agreement at issue is enforceable determines the likelihood of success on the merits of a breach of a restrictive covenant claim. In the U.S., the enforceability of restrictive agreements is usually enforced under each state’s common or statutory law. For instance, in New York, restrictive agreements enforced by courts include those that (1) are not injurious to the public, (2) do not impose an undue hardship on the employee, (3) protect legitimate interest(s) of the employer, and (4) are reasonable in space and time.

In the same line and with regards to confidential information or trade secret misappropriation claims, an employer may show a likelihood of success by, among other issues:

  • Showing how the employee has already used or may use such information to harm the business
  • Showing the steps the company took to preserve the confidentiality of such information-and-
  • Advising the court about the nature of the information that an employee has wrongfully retained.

With that, we have concluded the three factors that determine the success or failure of being granted injunctive relief by a court. In the next blog titled “Standing on Success in a TRO (Temporary Restraining Order) Application” and Part XIX of this series, we will hammer on “Standing on Success,” which is an important potential outcome and implication of seeking injunctive relief.

In the meantime, stay tuned for more legal guidance, training, and education. In the interim, if there are any questions or comments, please let us know at the Contact Us page!

Always rising above the bar,

Isaac T.,

Legal Writer & Author.