Peter Lando quoted by The Boston Globe in “Banning noncompetes could have major implications in Mass.”

With the recent proposal by the Federal Trade Commission to ban non-competes nationwide, the 2018 Massachusetts non-compete restrictions, put in place to protect the state’s vital innovation economy, are set to be nullified.

Critics of the proposed ban are worried. The intellectual property at stake is invaluable; “It is today’s currency,” stresses L&A Partner Peter Lando.

Companies could turn to nondisclosure and nonsolicitation clauses as an alternative to non-competes to protect business assets such as trade secrets, however, violations of the Trade Secrets Act can be expensive and difficult to prove.

Proponents of the ban argue that non-competes stifle innovation by restricting the free movement of talent and ideas, and there are other ways to protect employers. Still more say that the Massachusetts restrictions could act as a model for a compromise on the total ban proposed by the FTC.

Read the full article by Katie Johnston and Jon Chesto in The Boston Globe.