Keep it confidential

In WorldVue Connect Global, LLC v. Szuch, the Fifth Circuit largely upheld a preliminary injunction enforcing one-year non-solicitation and confidentiality covenants arising from a business sale, whille narrowing the confidentiality restraint. It addressed these specific matters:

• Geographic scope: The non-solicitation covenant applies to recruiting employees and contractors who perform work in the Restricted Area, even if they live and work abroad, aligning the covenant with contact language about “supporting … networks in the Restricted Area.”
• Covered personnel: Workers supplied through staffing agencies can still be “independent contractors” of the buyer and are within the covenant’s protection.
• Specific hires: Barring the hiring of eleven named contractors was proper given evidence they had already been solicited and to prevent the breaching party from reaping the benefit of the breach.
• Confidential information: The court modified the injunction to exclude the seller’s pre-existing personal knowledge of worker identities: “The term ‘confidential information’ … does not include the Szuch Group’s personal knowledge regarding the identity of personnel who worked for or with WorldVue.” Company-developed information (e.g., assessments of skills and value created after the 2022/2024 transactions) remains protected.

The Court also affirmed as to the trial court’s assessment of other equitable factors related to injunctive relief. No. 24-20571, Sept. 16, 2025