Exhibit 10.8
EXECUTION
NONCOMPETITION AGREEMENT
This Noncompetition Agreement (this “
Agreement ”)
among Nature Vision, Inc., a Minnesota corporation (the
“ Buyer ”), Cass Creek International, LLC, a New York limited
liability company(“ Cass
Creek ”) and Gary R. Lynn
(“ Lynn ”), John T. Bergstue (“ Bergstue ”), Todd E. Hallquist
(“ Hallquist ”) and James G. Streib (“ Streib ”) (where Lynn,
Bergstue, Hallquist and Streib are individuals, each of whom may be
referred to as a “ Principal ” or collectively as
“ Principals ”), takes effect on September 20, 2007 (the
“ Closing Date
”).
RECITALS
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A.
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Principals are key employees, managers or members of
Cass Creek. Cass Creek is engaged in the business of manufacturing
and distributing wild game calling electronic devices and other
related devices (the “ Business ”).
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B.
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This Agreement is being executed and delivered in
satisfaction of Section 1.8(e) of that certain Asset Purchase
Agreement of even date (the “ Purchase Agreement ”) among the
Buyer, Cass Creek, Lynn, Bergstue and Streib (the “
Sellers ”) and in
connection with the Inventions Royalty Agreement described in
Section 2.1 of the Purchase Agreement. Capitalized terms used but
not defined in this Agreement have the meanings ascribed to them in
the Purchase Agreement.
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C.
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The Buyer would not enter into and deliver the
Purchase Agreement if the Principals did not enter into and deliver
this Agreement. Additionally, each of the Principals expects to
derive benefits, direct and indirect, from the Purchase Agreement
and the transactions contemplated thereby and therefore each of the
Principals finds it advantageous, desirable and in their best
interests to execute and deliver this Agreement to the
Buyer.
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AGREEMENT
In consideration of the above recitals and the
promises set forth in this Agreement, the Parties agree as
follows.
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1.
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Confidential Information .
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1.1
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For purposes of this Agreement, “
Confidential Information ” means any information that any of the Principals
learned or developed during the course of their engagement with the
Business that derives independent economic value from being not
generally known or readily ascertainable by other persons who could
obtain economic value from its disclosure or use, and includes, but
is not limited to, trade secrets, and may relate to such matters as
research and development, manufacturing processes, management
systems and techniques or sales and marketing. For purposes of this
Agreement, Confidential Information also includes any information
beneficial to the Buyer related to the Business which is not
generally known and includes, but is not limited to, any methods of
research and testing, customer lists, vendor lists and financial
information related to the Business.
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1.2
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Each of the Principals agrees that, following the
Closing Date, he will not directly or indirectly use or disclose
any Confidential Information for the benefit of anyone other than
the Buyer. Each of the Principals recognizes that the Confidential
Information constitutes a valuable asset of the Buyer and hereby
agrees to act in such a manner as to prevent its disclosure and use
by any person unless such use is for the benefit of the Buyer. Each
of the Principals’ obligations under this Section 1 are
unconditional, will not be excused by any conduct on the part of
the Buyer except prior voluntary disclosure by the Buyer of the
Confidential Information and will survive the termination of this
Agreement. The obligations of the Principals under this Section 1
are in addition to, and not in derogation of, the obligations of
the Sellers under the Purchase Agreement.
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2.
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Covenant Not to Compete . For a period of five years from and after the Closing Date,
none of the Principals, their family members nor their affiliates
will engage directly or indirectly (except having less than 1%
ownership of the outstanding stock in any publicly-traded
corporation) in the Business worldwide. If the final judgment of a
court of competent jurisdiction declares that any term or provision
of this Section 2 is invalid or unenforceable, the parties agree
that the court making the determination of invalidity or
unenforceability shall have the power to reduce the scope,
duration, or area of the term or provision, to delete specific
words or phrases, or to replace any invalid or unenforceable term
or provision with a term or provision that is valid and enforceable
and that comes closest to expressing the intention of the invalid
or unenforceable term or provision, and this Agreement will be
enforceable as so modified after the expiration of the time within
which the judgment may be appealed.
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3.
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Products in Development . As of the date of this Agreement, Cass Creek has three
products under development, the Wiggly Rabbit, the Manual Slate
Turkey Call and the Ozone Closet (collectively the “
Development Products ”) fo
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