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, we, here at Miletti Law®, 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 create 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 IX of our ongoing series on “Trade Secret Misappropriation & Restrictive Covenant Claims.” In Part VIII, we provided you with an overview of “Tortious Interference with Contract,” another primary reason or consideration for an employer to assert a cause of action against an employee who has misappropriated trade secrets or confidential information. To move the discussion forward, this blog and Part IX of the series is an overview of “Unfair Competition from a Former Employee or New Employer” as the sixth “Consideration for an Employer when Drafting a Complaint & Asserting a Cause of Action” in the same regard.

Unfair Competition from a Former Employee or New Employer

Checking whether a stand-alone cause of action for unfair competition is recognized in one’s state is crucial for employers who may have sufficient evidence and have made a complaint concerning a trade secret misappropriation. As we have mentioned in past blogs, a trade secret misappropriation concerns the unauthorized access, acquisition, or use of an employer’s proprietary property or information for the benefit of the employee and/or a competitor but to the detriment of the former employer. In this regard, the same chain of misconduct under which a breach of fiduciary duty and/or trade secret misappropriation claim might be underpinned could be the basis of unfair competition. However, this depends on one’s jurisdiction.

For example, in a case where an employee sends the former employer’s confidential information to themselves, but word gets out that this employee is planning to start a competing business and/or has signed a contract to work for a competing company, the employer is likely to succeed on an unfair competition claim. However, as mentioned above, this cause of action is not recognized in all states and depends on one’s jurisdiction. Furthermore, in states where it is recognized, any causes of action aimed at benefiting consumers and the public by combating deceptive trade practices and misconducts associated with the theft of intellectual property may be limited.

Stay tuned for Part X of this series, in which we shall move the discussion forward by hammering on “Fraud & Abuse of Computers under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act” as the seventh consideration for an employer to draft and assert a cause of action for a trade secret misappropriation and/or a breach of a restrictive covenant/agreement.

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.