No.
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we're back to this again?
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I would hardly consider one of the 5 or 6 largest cigar distributors in America a "small company". :-)
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When emplyees playing front get....

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And try and

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through taking the notariety that the company paid to create and attempt to

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Then

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Not only is the corporate support gone but you have to deal with the things you agreed to that made the company comfortable with pumping corporate dollars into promoting you as well as their cigars.
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yes






:-)
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My non-legal view on NCs -it mostly depends on the state, some already have president of not recognizing them legitimate claim by the company or not.
The injunction has no bearing on the final outcome as Oliva is able to show they have a document and the judge agreed so he orders the injunction ... he didn't rule on the validity of the document.
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Watch this video and pay close attention at the question asked around 7:30.

http://www.veoh.com/watch/v14156371Y...ccia+Interview
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Between the distribution and farms, Oliva is a giant. This isn't going to hurt them a bit.
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You may be confusing Oliva Cigar Co. and Oliva Tobacco Co. They are not the same.
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You're correct I was, whoops!

I still don't think they are going to get hurt by this. :-)
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Oliva Cigar Co also has farms
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My ininformed opinion on this might be a.) he knew that he had a no-compete and b.) he figured he could stretch it out
with press releases for 5 years kind of like Duke Nukem Forever, always promised, never delivered, then one day there it is.

But again, I have no idea. I DO know 5 years is a long time in the cigar biz and swallows much.
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Is it "competing" to tour the country for 5 years, handing out pre-production samples of a product that's not yet on shelves? :-)
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Say it isn't so, Greg? :-)
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Nice review.
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My opinion on it for all the Boycott oliva people out there, is your not in the middle of it, your not sam and your not the olivas and they are the only ones that know the truth and what is going on. First if i was to boycott oliva what kind of smoke would i be giving up 85-90% of my humidor is oliva products, yes i am oliva/nub/cain/st freak... i love their stuff. Second i have met Sam and i have met Bryan, they are both stand up guys.... But that being said i don't see Bryan or Olivas bashing Sam on there Facebook.... In fact when i asked Bryan about Sam leaving Bryan only had good things to say about Sam, this was like a month or two ago... I think the whole thing is flipping childish, if Sam has 5 year non compete, then that is what it is, he signed it, now man up and honor your word... that is my 2 cent rant...
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Non-competes are almost ALWAYS unenforceable. I work in the graphic arts industry where non-competes are a heavy industry standard and the contracts are usually nullified by a judge due to the many loopholes available. One example would be firing. Regardless if the termination was justified, the company attempting to enforce the non-compete had better be able to prove it was a good firing or the courts will throw it out in the streets. The REASON is: What would stop an employer from 'hiring' you, making you sign an agreement for 3 to 5 years, work you 90 days and fire you? This would prevent you from finding gainful employment in your profession while 'protecting' the former employer from your work being done for his competitor. It's these abuses that make non-competes stupid to sign and difficult to enforce.
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Doesn't work like that in real world, bad example. Can you cite one such case?

Look up wine industry non-competes. So far, ALL OF THEM WERE and ARE ENFORCEABLE. In addition, I have yet to meet one winemaker who went back on his word, maybe its an industry thing, but agreements are ALL respected.

Like I said above, and AFAIK, any time a 5 YEAR non-compete is signed (a pretty lengthy time, I admit) there is serious monetary compensation involved one way or another (meaning during/prior to termination or thereafter), make no mistake about it. So, claiming "hardship" is pretty dubious.

Besides, you and some others keep mentioning "firing" as a way of Leccia/Oliva parting ways. Do you know this to be factual or simply guessing? If Leccia left on his own accord, then there is no court around to take his side. And from where I sit it does look like Leccia quit on his own accord and then decided to go the "American way", ie, stupid legal system where judges and juries have no common sense half the time and plaintiffs have nothing to loose by filing frivolous claims.

You don't see Ernesto Carrillo suing General after they paid him years ago to buy him out and he had to sit all this time on the sidelines due to non-compete he signed up front. That is a man of his word. And honor. To me. But it seems my values are skewed judging by some posts in the thread.
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Boycott Oliva, ehhh, if you feel that's gonna help Sam, go ahead. Oliva makes some outstanding products that I will continue to purchase. Sam signed that non-compete when he took the job.
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Yeah, I'm just gonna go ahead and keep not buying any Sam cigars. That's been working out great and no one seemed to notice. I think I'll keep buying myself some Oliva's from time to time, just like before, even.

I just read this whole thing, and it simply doesn't add up. For Sam to move ahead knowing there was a five year noncompete would be borderline retarded behavior.
The only thing I can come up with is that his stance is that he's in a completely different capacity in this new venture. That could be a decent argument, but he's clearly the pitch-man, which was his capacity at Oliva. Whether he's pitching at his own company or anyone else's, it's still the same thing. I suppose he can argue that it's only a small percentage of what he's doing and it comes with the entirely new job he's created?
I wasted way too many words on this. I feel dirty.
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