Hi
I was wondering if any of you would be able to give me some advice regarding a potential legal issue that I may encounter regarding my business.
I used to work for a children's science based entertainment company based abroad, with franchises around the UK, and before I left I started doing a similar kind of thing. They knew about it but didn't know I was also doing science. I left just over 1 year ago.
Just before I left, I had to sign a non compete contract that states for up to 2 years after leaving, I can't directly or indirectly do any similar work within 100 miles of where they operate (which is everywhere). It is very explicit and goes through everything that I can't do and what will happen if I break the contract. In an email though, my immediate manager (not the owner of the franchise) said it lasts for 1 year.
The franchise that I was working for before told me I shouldn't be doing what they thought I was doing, but they didn't tell the headquarters because they thought I wasn't doing science. Now I've been told by a few people (including a solicitor who wasn't particularly helpful, hence this post) that 2 years might be seen as unreasonable in court and wouldn't hold up, and before I decide to continue with it and give it the attention it deserves, I need clarification on this. A few people also commented that they can't have a copyright on science. Some of the things I do are the same (how could they not be, science is for everyone, and a few rival companies also do the same demonstrations) but in these cases my scripts are a bit different.
So far I've not advertised at all really, and have done a little bit of work with a client I worked for with the old company as well as a couple of other people. I was scared to push it out of fear of them finding out and suing me, as I'd heard of this happening before with this company within the UK.
So if I push it as much as I can and they find out, do you think I will have a problem? If it does go to court, what are the chances I will lose or incur costs (as I am basically broke at the moment). Also, due to the fact that I've broken the contract even before I finished working for them and within the first year, will this be a problem after the contract period ends (or whenever a court determines an appropriate amount of time has passed) or won't it matter after that? I have a plan that could make the company (as one part of a much bigger picture with many facets) very big, and there would be no point in pursuing that if all this could be backtracked and I could get screwed over because of the work I did before the end of the contract.
Thanks for your time