Yesterday US District Court Judge Waverly Crenshaw Jr. heard arguments in CBRE's lawsuit against Colliers International's Nashville affiliate. CBRE alleges broker James Compton, who moved from CBRE to Colliers last month, took "proprietary, confidential trade secrets" with him. The judge agreed to temporarily stop Colliers from using the information Compton obtained from his former employer and bar him from soliciting business with clients of CBRE.

Under terms of the temporary restraining order, Colliers will pay Nashville company LogicForce Consulting to scrub its IT systems of any CBRE documents or information. The process ought to take about a month, the Nashville Business Journal reports.

The judge said he had concerns about Compton soliciting and confirming clients while still in the employ of CBRE, but also that the broker had never signed a non-compete, non-solicitation or confidentiality agreement, and that at the moment, the plaintiff can't point out any specific document that has a trade secret or is labeled confidential. That might or might not change as LogicForce does its work. [NBJ]