Opinion ID: 409265
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The existence of reasonable limitations on the scope of the covenant

Text: 61 The final requirement-for (sic) the enforcement of a non-competition agreement is that the agreement be reasonable in scope as to both time and geography. Briggs v. R. R. Donnelley & Sons, Inc., (sic) 589 F.2d 39, 41 (1st Cir. 1978) (applying Illinois law). The non-competition agreement here is reasonable as to both. First, the agreement only restricts the defendants' conduct for 360 days following their resignations from Medtronic. Given the length of time needed to replace an experienced employee and the shortness of the restriction, the court finds the time restraint to be reasonable. See Cockerill, supra (5-year restriction upheld); Canfield, supra (3-year restriction upheld). 62 Second, the court finds the geographic restraint contained in the agreement to be reasonable and tailored specifically to the interest which Medtronic seeks to protect. Medtronic's agreement restricts only contacts with those customers with whom each of the individual defendants dealt, and not all of the customers of Medtronic as a whole. Furthermore, the restriction does not foreclose the defendants from selling pacemakers in the Chicago metropolitan area, so long as they do not contact customers with whom they previously dealt. The narrowness of that limit has enabled the defendants to secure territories with Intermedics which do not even require them to relocate from their present residences. The restriction at bar is reasonable as to time and geography and is not unduly burdensome to the defendants. See Gorman Publishing Co. v. Stillman, (supra). 63 The court concludes, after reviewing the non-competition agreements here, that they are reasonable and should be enforced. The Illinois Appellate Court in Morrison Metalweld observed, (w)hen a party to an employment contract agrees, in exchange for certain benefits, to refrain from competing with his or her employer, that agreement should be enforced where equitable. 97 Ill.App.3d at 376, 52 Ill.Dec. 825, 422 N.E.2d 1034. Here, it seems only equitable that Medtronic should have the right for which it contracted, to replace the defendants in its close doctor-salesman relationships before the defendants have the opportunity to appropriate those relationships for their own private gain.