Another Parallel With Silicon Valley: Non-Compete Clauses under Israeli Law

Edo B. Royker

Abstract

The attached Article contributes to the literature on the benefits of not enforcing non-compete provisions in fostering a start-up friendly environment. Many scholars have previously focused on this issue, but the current literature has primarily focused on comparing the state of the law between California and Boston alone. My article serves the novel function of providing a third focal point for this analysis – Israel – and provides an in depth analysis of Israeli statutory and case law on this issue. Introducing a third focal point will add empirical evidence to the debate on whether the failure to enforce such non-compete provisions does in fact help foster a start-up friendly environment. Not only that, but this article analyzes a number of statutes and cases that are only available in the Hebrew language, so the Article has the additional benefit of providing guidance to English speaking lawyers on the state of the law of non-compete provisions in Israel.