Do I have a case

There are three questions here.  First, is what you plan to do barred by your contract.  That question can’t be answered without knowing what the specific contract provides. Sime non-competes only prohibit solicitation of the former employer’s customers, others are far broader.  You need to review (or have a lawyer review) your contract.  Assuming the contract prohibits what you want to do, the second question is whether it is enforceable.  Non-competes are viewed suspiciously by the courts and are not always enforced, but there is no hard and fast rule about what will be enforced.  It depends on such factors as the length and breadth of the restriction, the type of employee and industry involved, the degree to which the employer’s confidential information is involved, the time and expense the employer put into acquiring any information the employee would be using and/or in training the employee, and many other factors.  Finally, if the court considers the contract to be unenforceable but not too oppressive, it may “blue pencil” it, that is the court may enforce a narrower form of the non-compete, for example enforcing it for 1 year instead of 2, or over a 2 mile geographical area rather than 10 miles.  The broader the provision, the more likely the court is o Todd the whole thing out, rather than edit it.