9th Circuit Extends Non-Compete Term Beyond Contractual Period
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The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Ocean Beauty Seafoods v. Pacific Seafood Acquisition Company that the doctrine of equitable extension can be used to tack on a non-compete period to an employment agreement after the original period had run, according to an article by of Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C.
They write that the case illustrates what can happen when: “employee disregards a non-compete and joins a competitor; former company calls foul and initiates a lawsuit; parties fight it out, but by the time litigation has run its course, the non-compete period in the underlying contract has expired.”
