What is a temporary injunction?

The success of your California business relies on the quality of its service or product, its intellectual property and its trade secrets. When another party tries to use those secrets or property without permission, you can take protective action and one step is to get a temporary injunction.

According to the Official California Legislative Information site, there are several situations that can be cited as a reason for a temporary injunction. These include the following:

• When the compensation needed is hard to calculate
• In relation to the matter in dispute, your rights would be violated by the other party’s actions.
• A trust is the source of the obligation
• Your business would suffer great harm by the actions of the other party and this is shown through the use of affidavits or a complaint.
• The other party is not ceasing in their actions even though you have shown that you are legally entitled to “relief demanded, and the relief, or any part thereof.”
• Several judicial proceedings would be needed without the injunction

The injunction itself is basically a legal order that prohibits the other party from engaging in a specific behavior. For example, you own a software business and you have a couple of software programmers who left their employment with you to start their own company. However, you have proof that they are contacting your customers and trying to entice them away from your business. In such a case, you could show that your business would be significantly damaged by the loss of revenue such actions would cause. This could give you grounds to petition for and obtain a temporary injunction against those former employees.

This information is purely for educational purposes however; it is not intended as legal advice.