Plaintiffs raise several significant questions as to the enforceability of the noncompete clauses….”); DAG Jewish Directories, Inc. v. Y & R Media, LLC, No. 09 Civ. 7802(RJH), 2010 WL 46016, at *2-3 (S.D.N.Y. Jan. 7, 2010) (“Plaintiff has not demonstrated a likelihood of success on the merits. To the contrary, plaintiff will face great difficulty proving the validity of the contract with Hayoun.
The Court notes that this longstanding Second Circuit standard may be in conflict with the Supreme Court's more recent formulation in Winter, which held that "[a] plaintiff seeking a preliminary injunction must establish that he is likely to succeed on the merits, that he is likely to suffer irreparable harm in the absence of preliminary relief, that the balance of equities tips in his favor, and that an injunction is in the public interest." Winter, 555 U.S. at 20; see also N.Y. City Triathlon, LLC v. NYC Triathlon Club, Inc., 704 F. Supp. 2d 305, 313 (S.D.N.Y. 2010) (acknowledging this conflict); DAG Jewish Directories, Inc. v. Y & R Media, LLC, No. 09 Civ. 7802, 2010 WL 46016, at *1 (S.D.N.Y. Jan. 7, 2010) (same). In this case, however, the outcome would be the same regardless of the standard used because there is neither a "likelihood of success on the merits," Winter, 555 U.S. at 20, nor "sufficiently serious questions going to the merits to make them a fair ground for litigation," Louboutin, 696 F.3d at 215.