Universal Ideas Corp. v. Esty

Plaintiff alleges that defendant breached a non-competition provision in the parties’ contract. The case was tried to the court. At the close of plaintiffs case-in-chief, defendant moved to dismiss on the ground, inter alia, that the non-competition agreement was an impermissible restraint of trade. The trial court held that “[p]laintiff does not have a protectible interest justifying said restraint of trade” and “[t]here is no evidence whatsoever that anything that was transferred [by plaintiff to defendant] under the contract would be qualified as trade secret, or anything unique.” The…