Two recent decisions from the Colorado Supreme Court have been issued that impact employment and trade secret issues in Colorado.  These decisions concern the validity of non-competition agreements and the statute of limitations for pursuing a misappropriation of trade secrets claim under the Colorado Uniform Trade Secrets Act.

 

Below is a summary of these decisions for your review.  If you wish to access the complete opinion from the Colorado Supreme Court, please click on the case name below.   

 

Luchts Concrete Pumping, Inc. v. Horner  

Continuing Employment of an At-Will Employee-Noncompetition Agreement. 

 

The Supreme Court determined that an offer of continued employment made by the employer to an at-will employee is now sufficient legal consideration for entry into a non-competition agreement.  In doing so, the Supreme Court determined that an employer can now enter into valid non-competition agreements with an at-will employee both at the start of the employment relationship and after the employment relationship has begun.  

 

Gognat v. Ellsworth 

Colorado Uniform Trade Secrets Act - statute of limitations and definition of trade secret.  

 

The Supreme Court determined that trade secret information shared with the same person, during multiple occasions in substantially the same time period, as part of the same joint commercial venture can constitute a single trade secret for purposes of the statutory limitation period in bringing a misappropriation claim.  Consequently, the  Supreme Court reasoned that even though multiple alleged misappropriations of the single trade secret occurred, the measurement of plaintiff's three-year statute of limitations period for a misappropriation claim under the Colorado Uniform Trade Secret Act started to run when he first knew of the first alleged misappropriation.  The Supreme Court concluded that because plaintiff knew of the first alleged misappropriation over three years before the filing of the lawsuit, plaintiff's claim was appropriately dismissed.