Competition in business can be fertile ground for potential liability. Butler Snow has a wealth of experience in helping clients compete for business and employees, while minimizing exposure to liability. Conversely, when our client’s business has been damaged by the unlawful acts of a competitor, former employee or other party, Butler Snow is well-positioned to help that client recover its damages and get back on sound footing.
Practice highlights
Each member of the group brings experience in a wide variety of matters relating to the law of business torts and unfair competition including cases involving:
Noncompetition and nonsolicitation agreements
Tortious interference with contract/business relations
Trade secrets
Lanham act claims
Duty of loyalty
Fiduciary duties
Employee and customer raiding
Trade libel/product disparagement
Fraud/misrepresentation
Duty of Good Faith and Fair Dealing
Injunctive and equitable relief
The group is cross-disciplinary, drawing upon the experience of lawyers from the commercial litigation, labor and employment and intellectual property practice groups.
Business tort/unfair competition matters frequently involve claims for injunctive relief. Our lawyers are ready to seek or defend against an injunction on very short notice to protect the interests of our clients.
Representative experience
Butler Snow lawyers have represented the interests of:
National brokerage firms in broker-to-broker litigation
Numerous clients with respect to false advertising claims
Software companies with respect to trade secret and customer poaching litigation
Medical product device and technology companies in cases involving allegations of trade secret misappropriation and breach of fiduciary duties
A myriad of companies in cases where a former employee went to work for a competitor in violation of a noncompetition or nonsolicitation agreement and/or with sensitive information
Competitors in a dispute over a specific customer or a series of customers
A consumer products company in a case in which a competitor ran ads in a national trade publication making false and disparaging comments about the client’s products
For additional information on Business Torts and Unfair Competition, please contact E. Barney Robinson III.
