\u201cIn the \u00a0employment context presently under consideration, the Court considers the network of acquaintances one comes to know through employment to be an aspect of the \u2018general knowledge . . . and experience acquired in former employment\u2019 that one could utilize in competition with one\u2019s former employer. An agreement prohibiting a former employee in this field from disclosing his acquaintances would therefore be a noncompetition agreement in disguise, and would be unenforceable as such.\u00a0 The situation may be different with respect to tangible documents or computer files produced by [the plaintiff] because such documents do not constitute general knowledge and experience.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
In other words, a plaintiff may be able to use a confidentiality agreement to prevent a former employee from using confidential documents or files taken from the office.\u00a0 However, the court held that a plaintiff cannot use a confidentiality agreement to prevent the former salesperson from contacting the customers met while working for the plaintiff if the salesperson can do so based on information committed to memory.<\/p>\n
Finally, as an aside relevant to this blog, the court considered whether the Texas and federal trade secret statutes could support the plaintiff\u2019s injunction application.\u00a0 The court rejected that effort by the plaintiff on the basis that the plaintiff failed to establish that the information about the plaintiff\u2019s customers was secret.\u00a0 The interesting \u201csound bite\u201d from this portion of the opinion is:<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cCustomer relationships do not qualify as trade secrets just because a company invests time and money to cultivate those relationships.\u00a0 This is the very reason why many employers insist upon non-compete agreements: to protect their goodwill and to prohibit former employees (for a reasonable period of time) from being able to take advantage of that time and investment to their detriment. \u00a0[Plaintiff] cannot rely on DTSA or TUTSA to protect the relationships because the DTSA and TUTSA protect an employer\u2019s secrets, not its relationships.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n