
Quoting
Bed Mart v Kelley, 202 Ariz. 370; 45 P.3d 1219 (2002)
A covenant not to compete in an employment agreement is "valid and enforceable by injunction when the restraint does not exceed that reasonably necessary to protect the employer's business, is not unreasonably restrictive of the rights of the employee, does not contravene public policy, and is reasonable as to time and space." Phoenix Orthopaedic Surgeons, Ltd. v. Peairs, 164 Ariz. 54, 57, 790 P.2d 752, 755 (App. 1989), disapproved on other grounds, Valley Med. Specialists v. Farber, 194 Ariz. 363, 982 P.2d 1277 (1999). A restrictive covenant is reasonable and enforceable when it protects some legitimate interest of the employer beyond the mere interest in protecting itself from competition such as preventing "competitive use, for a time, of information or relationships which pertain peculiarly to the employer and which the employee acquired in the course of the employment." Farber, 194 Ariz. at 367 P12, 982 P.2d at 1281 (quoting Harlan M. Blake, Employee Agreements not to Compete, 73 HARV. L. REV. 625, 647 (1960)). An employer may also have a legitimate interest in having a "reasonable amount of time to overcome the former employee's loss, usually by hiring a replacement and giving that replacement time to establish a working relationship." Id. at 370 P25, 982 P.2d at 1284 (quoting Blake, supra, 73 HARV. L. REV. at 659).