Intellectual Property Law

It?s All Greek To Them

Posted on August 28, 2009
Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal is reporting that Language Line Services Inc. and Tele-Interpreters, LLC, a competitor in the language interpretation industry, has sued Voiance Language Services for misappropriation of trade secrets and customer information...

IBM Tries For A Second Bite at the Apple (or Dell in this case)

Posted on August 07, 2009
Back in June I posted on IBM’s lawsuit against it’s former M&A chief, David Johnson, here. IBM sought a preliminary injunction to prevent Johnson from performing his duties at Dell. The Judge denied the preliminary injunction on June 26, 2009, saying that it would unfairly hurt Johnson’s career...

Alternatives to the Non-Compete

Posted on June 05, 2009
A great article over at Computerworld.com regarding the treatment of non-competes given today’s economy. It is very interesting reading. According to the article, courts have been reluctant to enforce non-compete agreements (in those states where enforcement is typical) because of the bad economy and the difficulty that people are The article then provides several [...

IBM Sues Former M&A Chief

Posted on June 05, 2009
Websphere Journal is reporting that IBM has sued its former M&A chief, David Johnson, for taking a job with Dell Computers. The suit is based on a 2005 non-compete agreement signed by Johnson–IBM accuses Johnson of misappropriating trade secrets...

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Activision Ordered to Hand Over Source Code

Posted on April 24, 2009
According to Gamespot.com, A Judge has ordered Activision to hand over the source code for the DJ game, Scratch: The Ultimate DJ. This case has gotten interesting fairly quickly. Let’s recap. Activision was sued on April 14 by Genius Productions and Numark Industries for “intentional interference with contract, breach of contract…and misappropriation of trade [...

ClearOne Maintains Its Award

Posted on April 24, 2009
I reported on this jury verdict back in November here. According to websitegear.com, it appears that the Judge has entered a Final Order awarding $9.6 million, not much less than the jury’s award. It appears the Judge was pretty convinced of BiAmp’s wrongful actions: As to defendant Biamp, the court ruled that the finding [...

Luna Innovations Eclipsed By $36 Million Award

Posted on April 24, 2009
Law.com is reporting that a California jury hit Luna Innovations for $36 million in damages for breaking an agreement Luna had with hansen Medical to develop a robotic catheter and misused trade secrets to land a contract with Hansen’s competitor, Intuitive Surgical, Inc...

Post-Employment Restrictive Covenants

Posted on April 10, 2009
Great article over at PharmExec.com about Post-Employment Restrictive Covenants in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries–but, a lot of the information is generally applicable to all industries. It’s the first part of a four part series that I will keep you updated on...

Are School Tests Public Records?

Posted on April 10, 2009
Interesting case out of Ohio–The Columbus Dispatch is reporting that there is a fight over whether or not previously administered tests should be considered public records, and thus accessible to enterprising students who want to make a public records request to see the information prior to taking a test...

KFC Security Upgrade Complete

Posted on February 10, 2009
Back in September I reported that KFC was temporarily re-locating their famous 11 herbs and spices recipe so that they could upgrade the security around it. You can find that report here. Now one of the most famous trade secrets in existence has been placed in its new home...

Practically Speaking - Beware of Phishing

Posted on February 05, 2009
Interesting article over networkworld.com about the dangers of phishing scams. As you’ll read in the article, phishing scams have become very sophisticated and if anyone at your company who has access to confidential information falls prey, you’re trade secrets may be at risk...

Microsoft Begins Trade Secret Suit

Posted on February 05, 2009
Biggest news is that Microsoft is getting into the trade secrets fray. Geek.com is reporting that Microsoft has sued its former employee Mike Mullor (no, it’s not what you think–this has nothing to do with an ex-employee taking other employees and trade secrets with him–although I can’t fault you for thinking so) for breach [...

Back to Work

Posted on February 05, 2009
I took some time off for Christmas and the New Year, and then was slammed at work when I got back, but now that things have settled down a little I’ll be updating more frequently. Thanks to all of you who check this blog frequently and I hope that you continue to do so...

Hey Ya! Andre 3000 Sued for $2 Million

Posted on December 12, 2008
bostonherald.com is reporting that Andre Benjamin aka Andre 3000 of the musical group Outkast has been sued, along with the Cartoon Network and Turner Broadcasting, by Timothy McGee, a Boston postal worker, for $2 million in damages relating to animated series “Class of 3000...

Clear Win for ClearOne

Posted on November 21, 2008
I’m a little late on this one but, better late than never. According to marketwatch.com, ClearOne Communications was awarded in excess of $10 million by a jury in a federal trade secret case in Utah. ClearOne sued BiAmp Systems, WideBand Systems, Dr...

Ex-Intel Employee Indicted for Trade Secret Theft

Posted on November 07, 2008
Networkworld.com is reporting that Biswamohan Pani, a design engineer at Intel’s Hudson, Massachusetts offices before going to work for AMD, is accused of stealing $1 billion worth of trade secrets to help his new employer. Key graph: “Pani is accused of accessing Intel’s network remotely and downloading 13 top-secret documents and other proprietary information related to [...

Faltering Economy May Lead to More IP Theft

Posted on October 16, 2008
A very timely article over at Computerworld that identifies a faltering economy as a circumstance that leads to greater theft of trade secrets and destruction of sensitive information. The article states that companies should be even more vigilant at these times to protect their valuable assets from literally walking out the door...

Famous 11 Herbs and Spices Trade Secret Being Moved

Posted on September 09, 2008
Yahoo.com is reporting that KFC, owner of one of the most famous corporate trade secrets out there–the secret handwritten recipe of 11 herbs and spices which exists on a yellowing sheet of paper signed by Colonel Sanders himself–is moving the recipe in order to revamp security...

It?ll All Come Out in the Wash? - Kate Hudson Sued

Posted on September 08, 2008
This news may be a little old but it is worth posting as I am going to be following the progress of this case closely. You can find a link to the information here. Actress Kate Hudson and ceebrity stylist David Babaii have been sued by 220 Laboratories Inc...

More Trade Secrets for the Dogs

Posted on September 02, 2008
In a follow-up to a previous post which can be found here, “PETA has filed a request for a rehearing with the Mississippi Supreme Court after the justices ruled that the information PETA was seeking about animal experiments at Mississippi State University (MSU) for cat- and dog-food company Iams is exempt from public disclosure...

Cargill Loses Trade Secret Case in California

Posted on September 02, 2008
According to FlexNews.com, which provides “business news for the food industry”, Cargill has lost its claim for misappropriation of trade secrets by three former employers named Matt Budine, Brian Sundberg, and Luciana Jonkman. The former employers formed a dairy nutrition and management consultancy firm called Progressive Dairy Solutions...

Bally hit with suit on hiring of CEO

Posted on August 05, 2008
The Trade Secrets Vault has an article posted on the Bally/24 Hour Fitness row. It looks like the case will bring up issues of the enforceability of Non-compete clauses and the inevitable disclosure doctrine. One to watch.

Keeping Corporate Secrets Secret

Posted on August 04, 2008
Good article over at eweek.com explaining the steps to take when considering protection for your trade secrets. While the article relates to high-stakes information and advises costly protection plans (i.e., encryption, data leak prevention tools, etc...

If Only They Were All This Easy - IBM ex-Employee Cops to Theft

Posted on July 18, 2008
Former IBM exec Atul Malhotra pleaded guilty to the theft of IBM’s trade secrets according to this article. Key graphs: In pleading guilty, Malhotra admitted that on March 15, 2006, while employed at IBM, he requested and received confidential information concerning IBM Global Services, CC Calibration Metrics...

David vs. Goliath - Google Sued by Start-up for $1 Billion

Posted on June 30, 2008
According to this article on www.zdnet.com, tiny start-up LimitNone has sued Google in an Illinois circuit court for $1 billion over an email switching tool that LimitNone claims it created. The email switching tool was designed to migrate customers of Microsoft who rely on Outlook applications over to Google’s Gmail application...

Chinese Spy Gets 2 Years

Posted on June 20, 2008
According to this article in USAToday, Xiaodong Sheldon Mang has been sentenced to two years in federal prison for stealing fighter-pilot training software and trying to sell it to the Chinese, Malaysian and Thai militaries. Meng “misappropriated two defense articles … , at least six source code products which were also trade secrets, and more than [...

Validity of Email Subpoenas on ISP?s

Posted on June 20, 2008
A fertile ground for evidence and information in support of a trade secrets claim, especially in cases where employees leave a company and take trade secrets with them, has been the employee’s email. Many trade secrets cases have been proven based on the employee’s own communications via email...

California Clarifies Statute of Limitations on Trade Secret Claims

Posted on June 20, 2008
In Cypress Semiconductor Corp. v. Superior Court (Silvaco Data Systems), No. H032114 (Cal. Ct. App. May 30, 2008), the California Court of Appeals recently ruled that the Statute of Limitations begins to run on a claim for misappropriation under the California Uniform Trade Secrets Act against a third party when the Plaintiff discovers the misappropriation...

Sears gets ?Roto-Zipped? again

Posted on June 06, 2008
You’ll recall that Sears was hit with a $21.4 million damages claim several months back for stealing an inventors idea of combining two commonly found power tools in one. I wrote about it here. It seems that the Judge felt it wasn’t enough and hit Sears with another $3...

Clear Channel Is Not Going To Take It Anymore

Posted on June 06, 2008
According to this article in the Chicago Tribune, Clear Channel filed suit against Tribune Co. and former employee and VP Andrew Friedman on May 19, 2008, based on allegations that Mr. Friedman had taken documents, data and files belonging to Clear Channel with him and that Mr...

Convictions in Coca-Cola Case Upheld

Posted on May 19, 2008
According to Forbes.com, a federal court has upheld the conviction and eight year prison sentence of Joya Williams, the former secretary at Coca-Cola company who was found guilty of conspiring to sell the trade secrets of Coca-Cola to its competitor. The convictions of Williams’ co-defendants, Edmund Duhaney and Ibrahim Dimson, were also upheld...

Spygate II Over - There?s No ?There? There

Posted on May 19, 2008
So after all the media scrutiny and conjecture (including on this blog which you can find here, here and here), the infamous Matt Walsh finally testified before members of Congress and said that he had no tapes of the Rams walk-throughs prior to Super Bowl XXXVI (commonly referred to as Spygate II)...

Ninth Circuit Rules that Laptop Searches Don?t Require Reasonable Suspicion

Posted on April 25, 2008
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is reporting that the Ninth Circuit has recently held in United States v. Arnold that the Fourth Amendment does not require reasonable suspicion in order to allow Customs and Border Patrol agents to search a laptop computer or other digital devices...

Bad ?Karma? in Silicon Valley?

Posted on April 25, 2008
The New York Times reports that Tesla Motors, the Silicon Valley electric sports car maker, has filed suit in San Mateo Superior Court in California against Fisker Automotive and two employees, including Henrik Fisker. Fisker was hired by Tesla last year to design a four-seat sedan, codenamed White Star...

Spygate Revisited Again

Posted on April 23, 2008
Many of you will recall the earlier posts here and here on Spygate II - the allegations that the New England Patriots taped a walk-through practice of the St. Louis Rams prior to SuperBowl XXXVI. We discussed the potential trade secret implications of the allegations and the stonewalling that the NFL was doing to [...

Good Hands or Just a Middle Finger - Revisted

Posted on April 11, 2008
Back in January I posted on Allstate Insurance’s refusal to turn over documents regarding its claims process, the so-called McKinsey documents. That post is here. Allstate claimed that the documents were trade secrets. Now, as reported by the Kansas City Business Journal here, Allstate has decided not only to turn the documents over to [...

$600 Million in Trade Secrets Stopped From Getting to China

Posted on April 09, 2008
Very interesting article.  Apparently, a former software engineer for a telecomm company based near Chicago was indicted based on a random search of her luggage, prior to travel to China, which revealed trade secret information worth $600 million.  Note that she was an employee of the telecomm company–if I’ve said it once, I’ve said [...

Trade Secrets Battle Over Breast Augmentations?

Posted on March 28, 2008
The Pacific Coast Business Times is reporting that two medical device makers who focus on aesthetic or cosmetic procedures (however, they are not competitors) are locked in a battle over some files that an employee of one company emailed to an employee of another company...

Feds Seizing Laptops at U.S. Customs?

Posted on March 14, 2008
The Reason Foundation has an article by Steven Titch which highlights the increasing likelihood that, upon your return from travel abroad, a U.S. Customs Agent may ask to see your laptop or cell phone in order to inspect and copy the contents, including all business and personal information...

California Employee Admits to Theft of Trade Secrets

Posted on March 07, 2008
The Sacramento Business Journal reported last week that Allen Cotten, a former employee of Genesis Microwave, Inc., “admitted to stealing trade secrets from Genesis Microwave and offering them for sale to foreign governments.” Notice the emphasis on employee...

FBI Arrests Chinese Chemist for Theft of Trade Secrets

Posted on February 25, 2008
In yet another employee misappropriation case, the FBI got involved in the alleged theft of trade secret information for intumescent fire-proofing coating (I don’t know what it is either) from a worldwide paint company with a subsidiary in Houston, Texas...

Spygate Revisited

Posted on February 22, 2008
I wrote earlier about the potential legal ramifications of Spygate (the New England Patriots taping of defensive signals) and what is now commonly referred to as Spygate II (the New England Patriots taping of a Rams walk-through practice prior to Super Bowl XXXVI) here...

Trade Secrets Can Cost A Lot of Bread (or Pan)

Posted on February 15, 2008
Two rival Hispanic bakeries in Portland are caught up in a trade secrets skirmish over recipes that two former employees took to another bakery. Notice the emphasis on former employees. Key graph: “These recipes and baking methods constituted valuable trade secrets not publicly known and … the cakes and pastries made from them were and are [...

News Corp, NDS and Pay TV Pirates

Posted on February 15, 2008
For those interested in the News Corp/NDS industrial espionage ruckus, there’s a great write-up over at afr.com. It will get you up to speed pretty quickly. For those who don’t know, NDS has been accused by several pay TV companies of hiring hackers to break other companies’ satellite encryption schemes and then posting the trade [...

First 18-1, and Now Jail Time for Belichick?

Posted on February 06, 2008
Someone must really be mad that the Patriots lost, because there are now rumblings that coach Bill Belichick and the NFL will come under fire relating to alleged tapes that the Patriots secretly made of a St. Louis Rams walkthrough prior to Super Bowl XXXVI...

Ohio Rules That Trade Secrets Can?t Be Memorized

Posted on February 06, 2008
Interesting ruling coming out of Ohio. The ruling is reported on by Forbes.com here. Key excerpts: “The Supreme Court of Ohio today ruled that use of protected trade secret information by a former employee who had memorized it during his employment violated the state?s trade secrets law...

Another Employee Misappropriation Suit - Agilent Sues Advanced Materials

Posted on February 01, 2008
TradingMarkets.com is reporting that Agilent Technologies, Inc. is suing Advanced Materials Technology Inc. in Delaware for breach of confidentiality agreements, misappropriation of trade secrets, and breach of fiduciary duties relating to its high-performance liquid chromatography or HPLC technology, whatever that is...

Florida Tire Manufacturer Wins Trade Secrets Case

Posted on January 31, 2008
Florida’s Herald Tribune is reporting that Alpha Mining Systems, a manufacturer of industrial mining tires, has won a $19.7 million verdict against former employee Sam Vance. You can find the story here. According to the story, “in early 2005, Vance began working for China-based competitor Guizhou Tire Co...

Coldwell Banker Sues Former Employees

Posted on January 23, 2008
In a scenario that is becoming all too familiar, Coldwell Banker has filed a federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Baltimore, seeking $2 million in damages and a restraining order on soliciting its clients, against two former executives, John and Ann D’Ambrosia, who left to open a branch of GMAC...

Good Hands or Just A Middle Finger - Allstate in Contempt of Court

Posted on January 17, 2008
The Miami Herald is reporting that Allstate is facing contempt charges in Missouri regarding its refusal to turn over certain documents prepared by an outside consultant from McKinsey. Allstate has already had its license suspended in Florida for its failure to turn over the same documents...

Nevermore quoth the Ravens - Aerotek Sues Johnson Group Again

Posted on January 14, 2008
Financial Week is reporting that Aerotek, a staffing firm based in Maryland and run by Steve Bisciotti, who also owns the Baltimore Ravens of the NFL, has sued Michael Ponce, a former employee for breach of contract, misappropriation of trade secrets, interference with contractual relationships, unfair competition and false advertising...

iRobot/Robotic FX follow-up

Posted on January 14, 2008
Here’s an article following up on the iRobot/Robotic FX case, for anyone interested. It appears Mr. Ahed is out of business. Lesson: Don’t steal trade secrets. You can see my earlier post on this topic here.

Silicon Image v. Analogix

Posted on January 11, 2008
Last January Silicon Image sued Analogix in California for copyright infringement, misappropriation of trade secrets, and unlawful, unfair and fraudulent business practices. Silicon Image alleged that Analogix, without authorization and in violation of Silicon Image’s intellectual property rights — copied and used Silicon Image’s proprietary register maps and semiconductor configuration software...

Trade Secrets For The Dogs

Posted on January 11, 2008
An interesting case out of Mississippi concerning the scope of trade secrets. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has requested documents under the Mississippi Public Records Act from Iams (a pet food maker) relating to experiments conducted on animals...

First Amendment v. Trade Secrets - The Curious Case of Think Secret

Posted on December 21, 2007
The Think Secret Blog, a popular Apple rumor blog, has settled its trade secrets case with Apple–the confidential settlement requires Think Secret to shut down, but it does not require Think Secret to reveal its sources inside Apple. InformationWeek...

iRobot Gets ?Unmanned Surge? Army Contract

Posted on December 18, 2007
For those following the iRobot trade secrets case against Robotic FX, Wired.com is reporting that the Army is now awarding the “unmanned surge” $286 million contract to iRobot. You can read the article here. The AP is also reporting this story here...

Employee Raiding and Trade Secrets Suit - PNC Sues Wachovia

Posted on December 17, 2007
According to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, PNC has sued Wachovia and is seeking a temporary restraining order to prevent the theft of its trade secrets, including valuable employee and customer relationships, confidential information and goodwill. Read the article here...

Heading Off Trade Secret Theft

Posted on December 13, 2007
I found an interesting article over at Business Week that was written last year by Lisa Fleming, an attorney in Boston, Mass. The article has valuable and pertinent information for any small business owner concerned about trade secret theft–and if you’re a small business owner not concerned about trade secret theft, then you should [...