pon graduating from college, Rita Morales was hired as a software consultant by IPQ Company, a large computer manufacturing and services company. Rita negotiated a high salary and even a nice signing bonus, yet after a few years of work she found that her spending often outstripped her earnings and savings. As her credit card bills piled up, Rita started her own consulting firm. Initially, Rita provided software consulting for her clients only on nights and weekends after she had finished her IPQ work for the day. As her business grew, she began seeing clients during normal weekday working hours and calling them from her office at IPQ. To find new clients, Rita downloaded IPQ's client information from IPQ's database. She contacted more than 200 IPQ clients and asked them to switch from IPQ to Rita's business. More than two dozen IPQ clients switched to Rita.

There are a number of legal and practical solutions that IPQ can put in place to prevent Rita from stealing its clients. Since Rita is still an employee in IPQ company.Some of the legal actions that IPQ can take to make sure Rita does not steal its clients, IPQ company can have Rita sign a non-compete contract. This will mean Rita cannot do any business that is a threat to IPQ company and its customer base. IPQ can sue Rita for using the company resources as well as using the company information in unethical manner;downloading IPQ's customer information and asking them to switch to her company as well as calling her clients during working hours and using the company's Time. IPQ could choose to terminate Rita from the company and ask her to give back the downloaded company data about employees. This will prevent Rita from further contact IPQ customer base.

would discourage future employees from applying if they were asked to sign a contract as such?