This morning the Supreme Court has handed down judgment in Tillman v Egon Zehnder, ruling that the ‘blue pencil’ test permitting severance of words that extend the scope of a covenant too far can be applied to parts of a single covenant, even where it is not in effect a combination of several distinct covenants. … Read more

On 18 April 2019, the Singapore High Court applied the Court of Appeal test in Man Financial and found that a non-compete clause was unreasonably wide due to its commercial, geographical and durational scope, and was therefore void as an illegal restraint of trade. The judgment is explained below. Read more

Further to its response to the Women and Equalities Select Committee report last December (see here), the Government is consulting until 29 April 2019 on proposals to regulate confidentiality clauses (commonly referred to as “NDAs” or non-disclosure agreements) in employment contracts and settlement agreements.  The Government has rejected calls to ban the use of such … Read more

The appropriate use of confidentiality agreements in the employment context has come under a lot of scrutiny given the #MeToo campaign; a recent case illustrates how the courts may approach the issue of enforceability. In Linklaters LLP v Mellish, Linklaters was granted a temporary injunction to restrain the defendant, its ex-global director of business development, from … Read more

It is common for employers to include restraint of trade provisions in employment contracts. However, such provisions are generally unenforceable unless it can be shown that there is a legitimate proprietary interest to protect and the restraint goes no further than is reasonably necessary to protect that interest. In Powerdrive Pte Ltd (“Powerdrive”) v Loh … Read more

Here’s a short video made for Practical Law, in which Herbert Smith Freehills IP and Employment Professional Support Consultants, Rachel Montagnon and Anna Henderson, discuss the impact of the UK’s recent Trade Secrets (Enforcement etc) Regulations 2018 and practical approaches to protecting confidential information and trade secrets. Key issues discussed are: The new, common definition of a trade secret What … Read more

Our article Recruitment and protection of talent: a boardroom issue for pharma is available on our pharma hub here. Technological advancement is key amongst the forces driving change in the pharmaceutical healthcare sectors, with businesses increasingly partnering with non-traditional players such as tech giants, agile biotech start-ups and insurers. In this article we explore how the … Read more

The Court of Appeal has ruled that the protection against unfair dismissal for taking part in trade union activities should be interpreted broadly and will not necessarily fall away where the activity involves misconduct. In Morris v Metrolink a trade union representative unlawfully retained confidential information that had been obtained without consent and sent to … Read more