Just to offer a perspective that runs counter to many of the comments here: As a small business owner who has made enormous investments in research and innovation in the education space (where I have very limited capacity to protect my IP in the existing IP regime), my ability to compete with much larger players in this space requires something which protects my small firm from having its IP poached and used against me in the marketplace. Without a non-compete of some sort (honestly, even with them in place) larger firms have poached our people and then taken all of our innovation. I can't invest in more innovation then because every time I do, I know that my team members will get hired away and our IP will (as it has before) continue to get stolen. I am not big enough to pay exorbitant salaries compared to bigger companies. The idea that the large companies in this space will drive badly needed innovation on their own is laughable - they want to protect their existing markets for their existing products. Small firms still need some form of protection for their innovative solutions. If it isn't going to be non-compete agreements, what is the alternative? A much less robust marketplace for solutions in a lot of industries.

Just to offer a perspective that runs counter to many of the comments here: As a small business owner who has made enormous investments in research and innovation in the education space (where I have very limited capacity to protect my IP in the existing IP regime), my ability to compete with much larger players in this space requires something which protects my small firm from having its IP poached and used against me in the marketplace. Without a non-compete of some sort (honestly, even with them in place) larger firms have poached our people and then taken all of our innovation. I can't invest in more innovation then because every time I do, I know that my team members will get hired away and our IP will (as it has before) continue to get stolen. I am not big enough to pay exorbitant salaries compared to bigger companies. The idea that the large companies in this space will drive badly needed innovation on their own is laughable - they want to protect their existing markets for their existing products. Small firms still need some form of protection for their innovative solutions. If it isn't going to be non-compete agreements, what is the alternative? A much less robust marketplace for solutions in a lot of industries.

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