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Intellectual Property Law

The Trade Secrets Blog

Information relating to trade secrets law, tracking development of trade secrets law and litigation, and practical advice to business owners on how to best protect their trade secrets.
By Benjamin C. Johnson, Esq.

Post Frequency: 0.3/day

Last Entry: August 28, 2009 at 14:45:05

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...

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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...

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