The Texas courts have long had a love/hate relationship with noncompete agreements. For some time, such restrictions were considered unenforceable until the legislature stepped in four decades ago. While referring to such agreements as "restraints of trade," the legislature nonetheless provided guidelines for drafting such agreements in an ostensibly enforceable manner. However, practitioners in this area of law know that the space between a well-drafted agreement and the enforcement of that agreement is not a straight line. And now the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has stepped into the fray attempting to outlaw all "noncompete" agreements entirely. This article discusses the strategies employers may use, with or without noncompetes, to protect their most guarded information and work product and how the Texas courts have dealt with these issues.