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Its true, it wasn't cheap, it did take about 2 hours of my lawyers time to do their thorough research. (Edit) But I would much rather spend two hours on a lawye

Its true, it wasn't cheap, it did take about 2 hours of my lawyers time to do their thorough research. (Edit) But I would much rather spend two hours on a lawyer to be safe, than spend a week on them being in court. And I suppose I was lucky that my employer was willing to do it, but they did do so in writing. Their lawyer already looked over everything and agreed, so was low risk to them. And yes I could see the problem with large going after small. Which is a whole other issue. At least in Virginia non-competes are very strict on how they can be enforced. If something is deemed 'too broad' it will be thrown right out. And it has to be a similar position at a direct competitor. I think a small company does have a fair chance against big ones in these situations, at least here. Unless of course they really are breaching the non-compete. (Edit) I suppose my point should be, cover yourself as much as you can. Not everyone may get as lucky as I did, but at least try. The last thing you want is to end up blindsided by a situation such as this story.

Bartweiss 9y ago
> And I suppose I was lucky that my employer was willing to do it, but they did do so in writing. Their lawyer already looked over everything and agreed, so was low risk to them. I suppose there's an argument that being employee-friendly about this is a good move for companies. After all, they reviewed the contract and shelled out to hire you, so they're clearly accepting some risk over the issue. Amazon threatens and blusters over noncompetes to retain staff, but someone who promises to fight unrealistic noncompetes might gain an advantage in hiring new staff - especially from places like Amazon.
- wand3r 9y ago
  It's similar to Newegg. They always fight patent trolls. I think the ROI between customer Goodwill, employee culture and dissuading suits is probably close to break even if it was measureable
  - Bartweiss 9y ago
    Yep, that'd be my guess. Newegg seems to have gotten actual consumer spending out of their goodwill, along with a lot of presumed value in trolls deterred. "We'll go to the mat over noncompetes" probably offers similar benefits in ensuring you don't have to do so again in the future.

Bartweiss 9y ago

> And I suppose I was lucky that my employer was willing to do it, but they did do so in writing. Their lawyer already looked over everything and agreed, so was low risk to them. I suppose there's an argument that being employee-friendly about this is a good move for companies. After all, they reviewed the contract and shelled out to hire you, so they're clearly accepting some risk over the issue. Amazon threatens and blusters over noncompetes to retain staff, but someone who promises to fight unrealistic noncompetes might gain an advantage in hiring new staff - especially from places like Amazon.

wand3r 9y ago
It's similar to Newegg. They always fight patent trolls. I think the ROI between customer Goodwill, employee culture and dissuading suits is probably close to break even if it was measureable
- Bartweiss 9y ago
  Yep, that'd be my guess. Newegg seems to have gotten actual consumer spending out of their goodwill, along with a lot of presumed value in trolls deterred. "We'll go to the mat over noncompetes" probably offers similar benefits in ensuring you don't have to do so again in the future.