Unfair Competition

Since the Austin tech boom of the 1990s, we have been litigating issues of theft of trade secrets, employee raiding, breach of fiduciary duty, and breach of non-solicitation, non-competition, and non-disclosure agreements. We have lived through the evolution of the law in this area and can offer our clients the benefit of our unique perspective. Year in and year out, defending and prosecuting these types of lawsuits make up a substantial portion of our practice.

We understand that for many clients, the company is on the line in cases like this. The Founding Partner and Chief Operating Officer of one of those clients had this to say after successful resolution of a matter involving a group of key employees who left to start a competing software development business:

 

“We trusted Hutcheson Bowers with some of the most important legal efforts for our company. They are extraordinarily competent, extremely responsive, and importantly, they provided us the reliable guidance and information we needed to make the right decisions.”

Representative Matters

• Defended design company client at injunction hearing after employee obtained a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) against the company client’s new employee
• Coordinated national strategy for international medical device company for enforcement of company non-competes and NDAs, including obtaining multiple TROs and favorable settlements with agreed injunctions
• Argued at injunction hearing in federal court for international nutritional supplement client to obtain preliminary injunction against scientific founder who left to start a competing business
• Obtained TRO and arbitrated matter for software development company against a group of key employees who left to start competing business
• Obtained TRO for national software development company against Chief Technology Officer (CTO) who left with a laptop full of secret code
• Defended employee accused of violating non-competition agreement
• Obtained injunction for national waste disposal company after contested hearing
• Obtained injunction on behalf of local technology company against employee who left to work at Microsoft, after contested hearing based on inevitable disclosure doctrine
• Prosecuted injunction case for financial services company against founders who left to start a competing business and took key personnel
• Negotiated various agreements with former employees of clients regarding post-termination competitive activity
• Counseled clients through the process of hiring employees with non-competition agreements with their former employer
• Counseled employees on how to leave an employer and how to manage new opportunities within the confines of a non-competition agreement

Representative Speaking Engagements

• The Texas Uniform Trade Secrets Act, University of Texas Annual Technology Conference (2019)
• The Case of the Moonlighting Employee, UT Law Technology Law Conference, (2016)
• Guest Lecturer, University of Texas School of Law, Employment Agreements and Covenants Not to Compete (2014-2016)
• The New and the Old in the Texas Uniform Trade Secrets Act, State Bar of Texas, Business Disputes CLE (2015)
• How to Protect Trade Secrets, Austin Human Resources Association (2015)
• Social Media & Non-Compete Law: From Hiring to Firing, HR High Tech Roundtable (2014)