Nike Company Sued Its Employees For Breach Of Competition Obligations

A few days ago, Nike sports (China) Limited believed that its original employee, Zhao, violated the obligation of competition restriction and brought it to court. The Dongcheng District people's Court of Beijing has formally accepted the case.

Nike claims that Zhao Mouyuan is the marketing manager of Nike department in charge of cooperation with athletes and individual sports associations.

Due to its working relationship, Zhao contacted and held many important information and business secrets of Nike, including the business information of important athletes and associations that had a cooperative relationship with Nike.

To this end, the two sides have signed "confidentiality agreement" and "competition restriction agreement". They agreed that when Zhao worked in Nike company and expired, he would not disclose and disclose any commercial secrets of Nike company. Zhao could not provide any services to Nike's competitors in any way within 12 months after he terminated or terminated labor relations with Nike, and the company would pay compensation to the defendant, Zhao, according to law.

In February 2008, Zhao resigned on the grounds of personal reasons. In February 2008, he agreed to leave the company. In March, he had explicitly requested that he perform the obligation of limitation of business within 6 months of his resignation (the time limit was less than the agreed time limit), and paid him 126 thousand yuan of compensation for the system of competition restriction, which is equivalent to 6 months' full wages.

However, according to Nike's complaint, it was recently learned that Zhao worked in Nike's main competitor, Adidas (China) Limited, and engaged in many commercial activities for the commercial interests of Adidas.

In April 2008, Adidas paid social insurance for Zhao.

Nike believes that the company's "secrecy agreement" and "competition restriction agreement" signed by the company are legally effective, but Zhao's behavior violates the agreed obligations and seriously damages the legitimate rights and interests of Nike.

Therefore, he brought a lawsuit to the Dongcheng District court and requested the court's judgment to confirm that the defendant's act infringes upon the commercial secrets in violation of the competition restriction obligation, and orders the defendant to continue to perform the obligation of limitation of business and return the 126 thousand yuan to the plaintiff for the limitation of competition.