Bringing a Knife to a Gun Fight? Preventing or Limiting Post-Termination Competition Without a Non-Compete

Lauren Linderman is presenting “Bringing a Knife to a Gun Fight? Preventing or Limiting Post-Termination Competition Without a Non-Compete” at the American Bar Association’s 45th Forum on Franchising Annual Meeting.

When the franchise relationship ends — acrimoniously or peacefully — franchisors often seek to enforce a post-termination covenant not to compete. But what happens when there is no covenant, the covenant is unenforceable or a state statute limits enforceability?

This workshop focuses on other applicable legal principles on which franchisor lawyers can rely to protect the franchisor’s rights and legitimate interests in protecting the brand and other franchisees from what the franchisor deems to be unfair competition — such as confidentiality and trade secret restrictions, rights to assume leases and telephone numbers, rights to purchase the business assets, and rights to customer information — as well as the arguments that franchisee lawyers can make to prevent franchisor overreach in the absence of an enforceable covenant.