Interim injunction in employee competition cases

• Covers employee competition cases, specifically interim injunctions granted pending further exploration at trial.
• Offers practical advice and covers recent caselaw.

Injunctions to stop employees commencing employment with a competitor in breach of a non-compete are routinely granted by the courts. Often, this is in recognition of the difficulties of policing compliance with other covenants and breach of confidentiality claims where confidentiality is the legitimate interest the employer is seeking to protect. An interim injunction ‘holds the ring’ until matters can be fully explored at trial. Enforceability of the covenant (including examination of meaning, whether it goes no further than reasonably necessary to protect a legitimate interest and/or whether a repudiatory breach of contract has caused the covenant to fall away) will typically be considered at trial. Claims follow a familiar pattern.

Pursuant to the rules set down in American Cynamid Co v Ethicon Ltd [1975] 1 ALL ER 504, [1975] AC 396, the court’s threshold for granting