Delaware Court Enjoins Use of Ex-Employers Trade Secrets

 Delaware Court of Chancery Vice Chancellor J. Travis Laster, faced with an unreasonable non-compete/non-solicitation agreement, indicated that he would have preferred to hold it invalid but said that he had no choice other than to modify its terms because its Maryland choice-of-law provision requires judicial “blue penciling.” He did enjoin the ex-employee from using his ex-employer’s customer list, a trade secret, but held that the ex-employee may call on any customer whose name is within his own knowledge.

            Delaware Elevator, Inc. (“DEI”), a national elevator installer and servicer, sued ex-employee John Williams who had 20 years of experience in the industry (six of them with DEI) at the time he left that corporation and started his own — one man — competing elevator maintenance company. He had signed an agreement with DEI (a) barring him for three years after leaving its employ from working in a competing business within 100 miles of any DEI office, and (b) prohibiting him from soliciting business from anyone who during the last six months of his employ had been either an actual DEI customer or a potential customer DEI was actively soliciting. While he claimed his signature on the agreement was a forgery, the court said that no rational fact finder could accept his claim. 

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