What type of geographic restriction would be reasonable in a non-compete provision if my work involves the internet?
At this point, it is unclear as to what a reasonable geographic scope of a non-compete provision would be for an employee that services clients over the internet in a large geographic area. However, in one case a Texas court found that, for an employee that worked with clients in both the United States and Canada, a reasonable geographic area was North America. In Pennsylvania, a federal district court found that a nationwide covenant was enforceable where the employee was directly involved in internet sales all over the United States. Although there is not a lot of case law on this issue yet, it appears likely that nationwide non-competes may be enforceable when dealing with nationwide sales through the internet.
