The Court overruled an objection to its mandatory jurisdiction in this case involving a software license agreement. It held, in affirming Defendant’s Notice of Designation of the case as one involving "intellectual property law," that:
Software licensing has become an integral part of economic life. Decisions concerning software licensing can have an impact beyond the confines
The Court dismissed the derivative claim of a minority shareholder who alleged that the majority shareholders of the corporation had breached their fiduciary duty to the minority shareholders by failing to make distributions, failing to investigate allegations on that subject, and terminating the minority shareholder’s employment.
The Court held that this was not a proper
The Court found that the Noerr-Pennington doctrine did not apply to the false submission of data to a public agency. The Court further found this conduct was not entitled to free speech protection under the First Amendment and the North Carolina Constitution. Nor were the Defendants entitled to state action immunity, or the protection of
Plaintiff sought an injunction preventing Defendant from selling its assets in North Carolina. The Motion was filed pursuant to N.C. Gen. Stat. § 1-485, which permits an injunction when "the defendant threatens or is about to remove or dispose of his property, with intent to defraud the plaintiff."
The Court denied the injunction, finding that it
The personal representative of a decedent was not required to give personal notice of the deadline for filing claims against the estate to a claimant, as required by N.C. Gen. Stat. § 28A-14-1, where she did not have actual knowledge of the claim. The Court also determined that she had no obligation to conduct an
The Business Court overruled an objection to its mandatory jurisdiction over a Complaint alleging breach of a trademark license agreement. It held "this case involves both the right to use trademarks and the right to use designs previously sold under the trademarked names at issue. It involves issues which fall within the mandatory issues supporting assignment
If a case involves only a breach of a covenant not to compete or a confidentiality agreement, it is not within the mandatory "unfair competition" jurisdiction of the North Carolina Business Court, based on two recent decisions.
The first case is Workplace Benefits, LLC v. Lifecare, Inc, decided by the Court on July 14, 2008. In that
A minority member (Kaplan) of a limited liability company, who was the LLC’s only source of funds and who controlled the LLC’s checkbook, did not have fiduciary duties to the LLC and its other members.
Judge Tennille held:
Being an investor in a company does not create a fiduciary relationship. . . . Kaplan, as a minority shareholder, had
The Court denied a Motion for a Temporary Restraining Order. The Motion sought enforcement of covenants not to compete executed by the Defendants, who were loan officers with the Plaintiff, a mortgage broker.
The covenants stated that the Defendants:
will not directly or indirectly, in any capacity work for any company, entity or individual, including
The Court allowed a motion to bifurcate in this shareholder dispute. Shortly before trial, the Court agreed to try first Plaintiffs’ claims for reasonable expectations, mismanagement, and breach of fiduciary duty; and after determination of those issues to try, if necessary, the issues of valuation and dissolution. The Order allowing bifurcation was entered with the consent