Legal issue assignment: Uniform Trade Secrets Act
Business Finance
Antonio Jones became employed by Apex Alarm Company. Apex is an Alabama corporation
with its headquarters and its principle place of business in Birmingham. Mr. Jones was a
resident of Georgia. He was never a resident of Alabama. He had been to Alabama once for
training, but that was his only personal contact with Alabama.
Because Mr. Jones was employed by an Alabama company, he was an employee-at-will and he
had no true employment contract. However, he did sign a non-compete covenant and a
confidentiality agreement covering trade secrets, etc. Apex’s market included the states of
Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and Tennessee. Because this was an industry that was highly
competitive, the non-compete clause provided that, if Mr. Jones quit or was terminated, he
could not work in that same industry for a period of 2 years. The geographic scope of the non-
compete covered all states east of the Mississippi River.
Mr. Jones was approached by Wallace Kilgore, the CEO of Armed Protection, a competitor of
Apex headquartered in Georgia with it principal place of business in Atlanta. Mr. Kilgore
offered Mr. Jones a position, to include an employment contract, if he would quit Apex and
bring Apex’s customer list and other trade secrets 3 with him.
The law firm of Alston Byrd in Atlanta serves as outside counsel for Armed Protection. Mr.
David Buck, one of the senior partners, serves as the partner in charge of Armed Protection’s
account. He helped Mr. Kilgore to write the letter to Mr. Jones offering this position,
structuring the offer and its terms, and drafting the proposed employment contract.
Mr. Jones considered the offer and told Mr. Kilgore that he would take the offer. In order to
get the customer list and the other trade secrets, Mr. Jones had to access a server that was in
Birmingham. Mr. Jones was familiar with the process necessary to do that because of his time
with Apex.
He accessed the server in Birmingham from his residential location in Georgia. He got the
information that Mr. Kilgore wanted and then quit Apex.
Apex has now sued Mr. Jones, Mr. Kilgore, and Armed Protection in the Jefferson County Circuit
Court for trade secret theft (Code of Alabama § 8-27-2) (Jones, Kilgore, and Armed Protection);
breach of the non-compete covenant (Jones); and Tortious Interference (Kilgore and Armed
Protection). Counsel for the defendants has now removed the case to the Federal District Court
in the Northern District of Alabama (Birmingham) based on Diversity of Citizenship.
What are the legal issue in this fact pattern? Identify the relevant facts, the applicable legal
rules and principles, analyze the issues, and provide your conclusions.
at least 2 pages
