Trade Secrets, Non-Competes and E-Mail Do Not Go Well Together (Unless You Like Punitive Damages) - Part 4
Tammy Keymon learned that e-mailing her former employer’s client information to herself violated Tennessee’s trade secret statute. Even though most of the information could have been gathered from public sources, the aggregation and speed of acquisition from her former employer (which the Court found took reasonable steps to protect the information by password-protecting its computer network), constituted a misappropriation of trade secrets.
By Trade Secrets, Non-Competes and E-Mail Do Not Go Well Together (Unless You Like Punitive Damages) - Part 3
Things were not going well for Tammy Keymon, the defendant in Hamilton-Ryker Group, LLC v Keymon. As I noted in the last post, the Court ruled she violated her non-compete. However, Tammy’s legal woes were far from over. Her former employer (against whom she had started a competing business the day after resigning) also sued her under Tennessee’s version of the Uniform Trade Secrets Act.
Trade Secrets, Non-Competes and E-Mail Do Not Go Well Together (Unless You Like Punitive Damages) - Part 2
Ok. Yesterday you quit your long-time job where you were a key employee. What do you do today? As Tammy Keymon learned in the case of Hamilton-Ryker Group, LLC v. Keymon, you shouldn’t contact the client you worked for on behalf of your old employer and solicit that client’s business (in Tammy’s case successfully).
Trade Secrets, Non-Competes and E-Mail Do Not Go Well Together (Unless You Like Punitive Damages) - Part 1
Let’s say you are a key employee for a company and have been for years. In fact, you are such a key employee that you are the primary point of contact for significant portions of your employer’s business. Let’s say the employer reorganizes and offers you a new job as part of the reorganization. What if you don’t like the new job that is offered? What do you do?
