The owner of a bakery in St. Louis, Missouri, that specializes in exotic, expensive pastries. The business has grown quickly in its first four years, and now sells its products to stores and restaurants throughout Missouri, Illinois, and Iowa. Meg has applied for a management position and appears to be the perfect candidate. She has five years experience as a food wholesaler and a reputation as a superb amateur chef. Meg would analyze the market for new products, create new pastries and other foods, and assist in selling new and existing products. Meg would work with company chefs, salespeople, and customers-just about everyone. You interview Meg and offer her the position. Meg accepts the position and shortly thereafter, you draft and Meg signs a non-compete agreement which does not allow her to take or make use of any of the bakery's recipes or formulas. Two years later Meg leaves and establishes her own bakery a few blocks away.
Discuss the legal implications of the following scenarios (i.e. could you successfully sue Meg in a court of law for doing the following? Discuss what information a court would use/need in order to rule in the following instances and how they should rule:
1. Even though Meg did not use the recipes, she does use information regarding her old boss' costs and profits, how much each of its customers spends, how much it pays its chefs, and products it has developed that have succeeded and failed, and the reasons for the success and failures. Discuss the legal implications.
2. Your bakery keeps a list of individual catering clients they have worked for throughout the years that they accumulated through sales calls, word of mouth and referrals. There is another list the company keeps for corporate clients that the bakery has accumulated by going on the internet and contacting. This has generated significant business for the bakery as well. Meg makes a copy of both lists to try to build her business' client base. Any problems with this. Discuss the legal implications.
3. Consider all the above facts in 1 and 2 above, but this time Meg moves to North Carolina to start her bakery? What if she stayed in St. Louis but started her bakery 5 years after leaving your employment? Discuss the legal implications of both situations.