Total Articles: 3
Tennessee Trade Secrets Update
The Tennessee Court of Appeals, in Hamilton-Ryker v. Keymon, 2010 Tenn. App. LEXIS 55 (Tenn. Ct. App. 2010), recently affirmed an award of almost $1 million to an employer who sued a temporarily laid off employee for breach of contract, misappropriation of confidential information, and violation of the Tennessee Uniform Trade Secrets Act (TUTSA).
Noncompete News: Update on Tennessee Trade Secret and Non-Compete Law
In 2000, the Tennessee legislature passed the Tennessee Uniform Trade Secrets Act ("TUTSA or the Act") to govern trade secret law and to extend an arm of protection to individuals and businesses with trade secrets. Tenn. Code Ann. § 47-25-1708(a). The Tennessee legislature adopted the definition of "trade secret," in part, from the Uniform Trade Secrets Act, but also included several other additions, making Tennessee's definition of "trade secret" even broader than that of most states. Recent Tennessee case law arguably provides greater protection to trade secrets by offering protection to categories of information that traditionally were not considered trade secrets.
New Law Specifies Physicians' Non-Compete Agreement Requirements.
On June 21, Governor Phil Bredesen signed House Bill 240/Senate Bill 1688, which was the General Assembly’s response to a 2005 case in which the Tennessee Supreme Court declined to enforce a non-compete provision in an employment contract between a physician and a clinic. In Murfreesboro Medical Clinic, P.A. v. Udom, the state’s highest court held that, except for restrictions specifically provided for by Tennessee’s corporate practice of medicine statute, “covenants not to compete are unenforceable against physicians.”
