Articles Posted in Business Law

It is important for businesses to protect their trade secrets to prevent their misappropriation. But sometimes, a business’s trade secrets are stolen despite the business’s best efforts to protect them. For example, an employee may steal his employer’s trade secrets and start a competing business or provide the secret to an already established competing business.…

Breach of contract is a common cause of action in business disputes. When deciding whether to file a lawsuit for breach of contract, one must determine the remedies are available for the particular breach of contract in question. Florida law allows remedies for damages, restitution, and specific performance. Ocean Commc’ns, Inc. v. Bubeck, 956 So.…

Businesses commonly enter into restrictive covenants with their employees to prohibit them from unfairly competing with the business during and after employment. Restrictive covenants include contracts that restrict competition, such as non-compete agreements, non-disclosure agreements, and confidentiality agreements. When preparing a restrictive covenant, what provisions should be included? Typically, a business should include provisions that…

Plaintiffs often attempt to pursue punitive damages in litigation. Punitive damages are intended to punish reprehensible conduct by a defendant. Cooper Industries, Inc. v. Leatherman Tool Group, Inc., 532 U.S. 424 (2001). Punitive damages can be attractive for plaintiffs because they can multiply compensatory damages thereby resulting in a much larger recovery. See Fla. Stat.…

The Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) rule banning most non-compete agreements continues to produce legal developments. Conflicting opinions were previously issued by a court in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas and by a court in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. In Ryan LLC v. FTC, Case…

If you replace a contract with another contract, is the original contract still enforceable? The answer to this question involves a contract principle called novation. Peter Mavrick is a Fort Lauderdale business litigation attorney. The Mavrick Law Firm represents businesses and their owners in breach of contract litigation and related claims of fraud, non-compete agreement…

Under Florida contract law, integration clauses (also known as merger clauses) are important to clearly define the terms of a contract. An integration clause generally limits a contract’s terms to only those that are expressly contained within the written contract. See Vigortone AG Products, Inc. v. PM AG Products, Inc., 316 F. 3d 641 (7th…

The Court of Appeals of Virginia recently reversed a massive verdict in a trade secret misappropriation case involving two business competitors. In Pegasystems, Inc. v. Appian Corporation, ___ S.E.2d. ____, 2024 WL 3571808 (Va. 2024), the jury returned a verdict of more than $2 billion, the largest trade secret verdict in Virginia history. However, the…

Businesses often enter contracts with vendors, independent contractors, executives, employees, and others. But sometimes, these contracts may be verbal and unformalized. If a dispute arises regarding one of these verbal contracts, it may not be enforceable under the Statute of Frauds. Peter Mavrick is a Fort Lauderdale business litigation attorney. Peter Mavrick is a Fort…

If you are in a business dispute involving several persons acting in concert with one another, you could have a claim for civil conspiracy. The “gist of a civil conspiracy [claim] is not the conspiracy itself, but the underlying civil wrong” that is the focus or purpose of the conspiracy. Tejera v. Lincoln Lending Servs.,…