The perpetual search for a work-around to California’s prohibition on employee non-competes was stymied again when a California Superior Court refused to dismiss outright an intentional interference with contract claim based upon an allegedly illegal long-term employment contract.

The latest case to test the contours of California’s post-employment legal restrictions—Viacom v. Netflix—features two media giants warring for tech talent. Viacom claimed that Netflix had illegally poached a Viacom executive by wooing her into an early termination of her multi-year employment contract, a solicitation that Viacom claimed was a broader effort by Netflix to systematically raid and recruit talent from Viacom and others.