Legal Question in Business Law in Hawaii

Settlement Agreement Violation

A former bus. associate signed an agreement ''not to prepare, sell, or advertise food items identical to mine.'' The specific products are not in the wording of the agreement, but I verbally specified exactly which products I wanted to protect. I wanted this protection to prevent the individual from using food items I had created, prepared, and sold prior to our association and intended to continue using in my own business. Both of us are competitors now. He has continued the sale of these same items under different titles and claims he changed the recipes, however, he is still using the same primary ingredients that are the substance of the product and are functionally identical giving the same final products. Even customers have commented on the duplication of the flavor. Our menu descriptions are nearly identical except for different titles. Recipes aren't copyrightable, I don't have any patents or a non-competition contract. These are very unique flavors that no one else has duplicated or serves except for the former associate? What do you think? Do I have cause for recourse or do I just have to ''eat it?''


Asked on 5/08/04, 5:52 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Jon Zahaby Tour bus, scenic and sightseeing, operation

Re: Settlement Agreement Violation

Depending on all of the facts and the wording of the agreement you may have recourse. I would, however, need to see the non-compete contract in order to give an analysis on how successful your case would be as opposed to how much it would cost you to litigate. Feel free to call me to set up a free consultation at 808-526-0892 Aloha, Jon A. Zahaby

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Answered on 5/10/04, 5:04 pm


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