Yesterday (August 14, 2024), Judge Timothy Corrigan of the federal district court in Florida heard oral arguments in Properties of the Villages, Inc. v. FTC, the third case challenging the FTC’s noncompete rule.
The court has not yet issued its written decision and order. But it did grant the plaintiff’s motion to stay the effective date and preliminary injunction.
The clerk’s minute order provides as follows:
The Court heard argument on Plaintiff’s Motion for Stay of Effective Date and Preliminary Injunction and Incorporated Memorandum of Law (Doc. 25).
Plaintiff’s Motion for Stay of Effective Date and Preliminary Injunction and Incorporated Memorandum of Law (Doc. 25) is GRANTED.
Order to enter.
Although this is a second court finding that the FTC’s noncompete rule should be enjoined, the relief requested by the plaintiff in this case is limited to just the plaintiff. So the preliminary injunction is unlikely to resolve the confusion facing the rest of the companies and employees around the country.
In the meantime, we are 15 days away from Judge Ada Brown’s final decision in Ryan LLC v. FTC, anticipated on August 30. The court has continued to receive briefing from the parties and amici arguing both sides. But the handwriting is on the wall, given the court’s preliminary injunction. The real question is whether the court’s final decision will help all companies and employees, just the parties and their employees, or something in between.
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Given the uncertainty about the future of the rule and what companies that use noncompetes should do at this point, we hosted a brainstorming session with over 55 of the country’s leading trade secret / restrictive covenant / employee mobility lawyers to address that very issue. If you want to learn more about what we suggested, the recording is available here.
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Firm resources:
We know how hard it is to keep up with the ever-changing requirements around the country. To help, we have created the following resources (available for free):
- 50-State Noncompete Law Chart, the first of its kind and regularly updated (downloadable PDF) (to be updated for Rhode Island’s nurse exemption);
- Chart of Noncompete “Low-Wage” Thresholds and Criteria (downloadable);
- Notice requirements summary chart, providing details for each of the 8 states (plus D.C.) that has notice requirements related to noncompetes (downloadable PDF);
- 50-State and Federal Trade Secret Law Chart, providing a comparison of the trade secrets laws nationally to the Uniform Trade Secrets Act (downloadable PDF).
- “Changing Trade Secrets | Noncompete Laws” (dedicated blog page) now provides a current detailed summary of the changing landscape of trade secret laws and noncompete laws around the country, state by state and at the federal level;
- Trade secret and other legitimate business interest protection plan strategy and checklist; and
- Ten Minute Trade Secret Training Series, currently with three training videos and one “basics” video:
We hope you find all of these resources useful. More are coming.
And please note, we are grateful for all of the input we’ve received over the years. We welcome any suggestions for improvements that you may be willing to share.
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*Thank you to Erika Hahn, Max Perlman, Siobhan Mee, Erik Weibust, and my wife! for letting me know the motion was granted and sending me a copy of the clerk’s minutes.