On behalf of a client prosecuting claims for breach of a customer nonsolicitation agreement, M2D lawyers Mike Muskat and Daniel Lenhoff recently obtained the trial court’s denial of the defendants’ motion to dismiss under the Texas Citizens Participation Act (TCPA), the state’s anti-“SLAPP” law. The TCPA has been used in recent years by some defendants as a strategy to obtain the early dismissal of trade secrets and noncompete matters. M2D is pleased to have convinced the trial court that the defendants’ motion was meritless and that the case should proceed to discovery.
The Texas legislature recently passed amendments to the TCPA expressly exempting these types of unfair competition matters from statutory coverage. The amendments take effect on September 1, 2019.