Opinion ID: 151632
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Botticella's Employment at Bimbo

Text: Bimbo, a Delaware corporation with its principal place of business in Pennsylvania, is one of the four largest companies in the United States baking industry. Bimbo and its affiliates produce and distribute baked goods throughout the country under a number of popular brand names including Thomas', Entenmann's, Arnold, Oroweat, Mrs. Baird's, Stroehmann, and Boboli. Botticella, a California resident, who already had experience in the baking industry, began working for Bimbo in 2001 and was, until January 13, 2010, its Vice President of Operations for California. In that position in which Botticella earned an annual salary of $250,000, he was directly responsible for five production facilities and oversaw a variety of areas including product quality and cost, labor issues, and new product development. In addition Botticella worked closely with Bimbo's sales staff on sales promotion and capacity planning, and also was responsible for overseeing the operations of co-packers in his region, i.e., third-party manufacturers under contract with Bimbo. As one of Bimbo's senior executives, Botticella had access to and acquired a broad range of confidential information about Bimbo, its products, and its business strategy. For example, he was one of a select group of individuals with access to the code books containing the formulas and process parameters for all of Bimbo's products. He also regularly attended high-level meetings with other top Bimbo executives to discuss the company's national business strategy. Significantly, as Bimbo repeatedly has noted throughout these proceedings, Botticella was one of only seven people who possessed all of the knowledge necessary to replicate independently Bimbo's popular line of Thomas' English Muffins, including the secret behind the muffins' unique nooks and crannies texture. Thomas' English Muffins is the source of approximately half a billion dollars worth of Bimbo's annual sales income. While employed at Bimbo, Botticella signed a Confidentiality, Non-Solicitation and Invention Assignment Agreement with Bimbo on March 13, 2009, in which he agreed not to compete directly with Bimbo during the term of his employment, not to use or disclose any of Bimbo's confidential or proprietary information during or after the term of his employment with Bimbo, and, upon ceasing employment by Bimbo, to return every document he received from Bimbo during the term of his employment. App. at 214-18. The agreement, however, did not include a covenant restricting where Botticella could work after the termination of his employment with Bimbo. The agreement contained a choice of law provision providing that Pennsylvania law would govern any dispute arising from the agreement. Moreover, the agreement provided that certain state and federal courts in Pennsylvania would have jurisdiction over litigation arising from the agreement and over the parties to that litigation. Thus, although this litigation seems only marginally related to Pennsylvania, Bimbo filed it in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, which has exercised jurisdiction.