Non-compete Agreements Stifling Startups?

From Slashdot came Non-Compete Pacts Called Bad For Tech Innovation:

carusoj writes in with NetworkWorld reporting from a panel at Harvard last week. It concluded that employee non-compete agreements have stifled tech startup development in Massachusetts, where the pacts are aggressively enforced, but failed to hold back the tech industry boom in states like California, where they are mostly unenforceable. We've discussed non-competes often here in the past; Techdirt made much the same point a year and a half back.

And then there is from Networkworld, Non-compete pacts called bad for tech innovation:

Some instead seek employment in large companies that can defend them against litigation related to non-compete agreements, said Lee Fleming, an associate professor at Harvard who is conducting a research project into the subject.

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However, Fleming repeatedly cautioned that empirical data regarding the effect of non-compete agreements is scant.

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While non-compete agreements ostensibly protect a company's interests, legislation is in place to handle "anything tangible that a company would own," said Rich Miner, vice president for mobile technology at Google. "All of that stuff is either patented, copyrighted or somehow protected."

"They don't have the non-compete agreements, and West Coast high-tech companies seem to be doing just fine," he added.

You will find an earlier post hitting on this same subject here.