Intellectual Property Law

Apple turns lawyers loose to keep its big secret

Posted on January 21, 2010
By: Mike Harvey Apple has turned to its lawyers in an attempt to keep the lid on the company's biggest product launch in three years. Its lawyers have sent a warning letter to a website that offered cash for photos of its touchscreen tablet personal computer before the product is unveiled, probably next week...

Trade secrets cloak chemicals' possible dangers

Posted on January 14, 2010
By Lyndsey Layton THE WASHINGTON POST A lawyer representing Cupertino iPhone, iPod and "I'm a Mac" computer maker Apple is demanding that Valleywag, Gawker Media's tech gossip site, retract its offer to pay as much as $100,000 for proof that the company's rumored tablet or "iSlate" computing device actually exists...

Apple lawyer: Don't offer $100K 'bounty' for tablet 'secrets'

Posted on January 14, 2010
By Frank Michael Russell A lawyer representing Cupertino iPhone, iPod and "I'm a Mac" computer maker Apple is demanding that Valleywag, Gawker Media's tech gossip site, retract its offer to pay as much as $100,000 for proof that the company's rumored tablet or "iSlate" computing device actually exists...

China says Rio Tinto case to be handled fairly

Posted on January 14, 2010
Chinese police have concluded investigations into four employees of Rio Tinto Ltd., who were suspected of infringing trade secrets and bribery. They were handed over to the Shanghai procuratorate for prosecution, Shanghai public security authorities said Monday...

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Social media permeate the employment life cycle

Posted on January 08, 2010
By: Renee M. Jackson Employers must address their use and misuse before, during and after an employee's tenure. Social media are any type of Internet-based media created through social interaction in which individuals primarily produce, rather than consume, the content...

American Board of Internal Medicine sues Arora Board Review in trade secrets case

Posted on January 08, 2010
By: John George Staff Writer The American Board of Internal Medicine filed a lawsuit Tuesday alleging copyright infringement and theft of trade secrets by the Arora Board Review and two of its principals. The lawsuit, filed at U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, also names Arora principals Rajender K...

Task Force Proposes Redesigning Form 483 as Part of Its Transparency Initiative

Posted on January 08, 2010
The QMN Weekly Bulletin An FDA Transparency Task Force request for comment on making Form 483s more accessible is taking heat for both the way it was announced and the possible threat it could pose to industry trade secrets. The request did not come through traditional channels, such as a Federal Register notice...

Cleco granted protective order for 'trade secrets"

Posted on January 08, 2010
TOWN TALK STAFF U.S. District Judge Dee D. Drell issued a protective order on Dec. 30 to protect "confidential information" from becoming public knowledge prior to trial. "This Protective Order applies to confidential information, documents and things, including, without limitation, designated testimony adduced at depositions upon oral examination or upon written questions, answers to interrogatories, documents and tangible things produced, and answers to requests for admissions," Drell wrote...

U.S. v. ROBERTS UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. CLARK ALAN ROBERTS and SEAN EDWARD HOWLEY

Posted on January 08, 2010
United States District Court, E.D. Tennessee, Knoxville. The Superseding Indictment charges the defendants in eleven counts with violations of the Economic Espionage Act (EEA), 18 U.S.C. § 1832. Count One alleges the defendants conspired to commit theft of trade secrets, unauthorized photographing and transmitting of trade secrets, and receiving and possessing trade secrets...

Licensor, Sue Thy Own, For Thy Secrets

Posted on January 08, 2010
By Guest Barista Eastman's divestment of its PET business in the EU to Indorama ended up in Delaware federal court as the licensor's patent infringement action. Eastman Chemical Company v. AlphaPet Inc. et al. (09-CV-971). Named as defendants are the Indorama licensees, and affiliates, and a U...

Chemical secrets: An outdated law lets companies hide potential health risks

Posted on January 08, 2010
By: Siel Ju So long as companies claim the chemicals are a trade secret, neither the names nor the properties of the chemicals need to be released, except to a handful of Environmental Protection Agency employees who aren't allowed to share that information...

Ex-Grand owners file suit

Posted on December 30, 2009
BY NATHAN PHELPS GREENBAY PRESSGAZETTE The previous owners of what is now The Grand filed a third-party civil complaint and counterclaim in Brown County Circuit Court late Monday afternoon, taking issue with the change in ownership earlier this month...

Lawyer says facts all wrong in trade secrets case

Posted on December 30, 2009
By Graeme Moore The lawyer for a man charged with giving trade secrets to an Indian company said Tuesday his client is not guilty. Last Wednesday, the 15th Judicial Circuit Solicitor's Office arrested Flynn and charged him with misappropriation of trade secret information with intent to injure...

Palm City manufacturer awarded almost $300,000 in trade secret dispute

Posted on December 26, 2009
TC PALM A Martin County jury Wednesday awarded nearly $300,000 to a Palm City plastics manufacturer. The money is to be paid by a rival Port St. Lucie firm for civil damages related to misappropriating a trade secret in a legal dispute spanning more than a decade...

EPA announces plan to require disclosure of secret pesticide ingredients

Posted on December 25, 2009
By Marla Cone Reversing a decade-old decision, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Tuesday that it plans to require pesticide manufacturers to disclose to the public the inert ingredients in their products. An inert ingredient is anything added to a pesticide that does not kill or control a pest...

Verizon sues former Alltel exec over trade secrets

Posted on December 25, 2009
By Phil Goldstein Fierce Wireless Verizon Wireless filed a lawsuit against a former Alltel executive who has since joined Allied Wireless, a new company that will run some of the former properties and assets Verizon divested as part of its $28.1 billion purchase of Alltel...

Local Advertising Startup Yodle Sues Former Employees Over Alleged Data Theft

Posted on December 19, 2009
By: Robin Wauters Former Yodle employees Daniel Mousetis, Christopher Esgro and Ronald Pousson, who once ran Yodle's Philadelphia operations, allegedly helped competitor Local Internet Doctors (LID) to 'hack' Yodle's systems and steal proprietary data...

China Holds U.S. Engineer on Trade Secrets Charge

Posted on December 18, 2009
By CHARLES HUTZLER Chinese police have detained an American automotive engineer for more than a year on accusations he misused trade secrets -- the latest case of vague secrecy laws being used against an American in China. Hu Zhicheng, a prize-winning designer of industrial catalysts to control auto emissions, has had letters from his family censored and has been denied reading materials during his detention in the port city of Tianjin, said the U...

Appeals court affirms record disclosure in DOT lawsuit

Posted on December 18, 2009
By Luke Jennett Ames Tribune A court of appeals decision today affirmed that the Iowa Department of Transportation must turn over a copy of a report it made on products from a company that supplies temporary traffic signals. The suit was brought against the Iowa DOT and Horizon Signal Technologies by O...

Hansen Medical Settles Lawsuit

Posted on December 15, 2009
By Meera Venu Hansen Medical HNSN reported Friday that it settled a lawsuit with Luna Innovations LUNA regarding a contract breach and trade secrets. According to the terms of the agreement, Luna will pay Hansen $5 million in a promissory note over four years and issue shares equal to 10% of its shares...

Fire sale: Imara's battery patents and trade secrets

Posted on December 15, 2009
By Lisa Sibley Cleantech Group The Silicon Valley startup shutters its building as funding dries up, but the world may not have seen the last of its proprietary formula for lithium-ion batteries. Menlo Park, Calif.-based Imara is looking for buyers of its patents and technology, after abruptly shutting its doors yesterday...

Minaya has some trade secrets

Posted on December 11, 2009
By: STEVE POPPER INDIANAPOLIS - On the first day of the winter meetings, the Mets found themselves the subject of some of the biggest business. The only problem was that their contribution was issuing denials to rumored deals. Omar Minaya says the tendency is to get trades out of the way before free agent signings...

Report: Crocs sued by Columbia Sportswear in trade-secrets dispute - Denver Business Journal:

Posted on December 11, 2009
Denver Business Journal Colorado's Crocs Inc. has been accused in a lawsuit by Oregon's Columbia Sportswear Co. of misappropriating trade secrets, according to a news report. The Oregonian newspaper of Portland reports on its website, OregonLine.com, that Portland-based Columbia (NASDAQ: COLM) added the accusation in an amendment to an existing lawsuit Tuesday in an Oregon court...

Saline resident charged with stealing trade secrets

Posted on December 05, 2009
By: Margaret Lucas Agius The Examiner Acting U.S. Attorney Terrence Berg, joined by FBI Special Agent in Charge Andrew G. Arena, announced that a federal indictment was unsealed today charging Saline resident Michael Hummel, 35, with wire fraud and theft of trade secrets from his former employer, Quicken Loans Inc...

Man pleads guilty in trade secret case

Posted on December 05, 2009
By Julie Arrington Forsyth News A Forsyth County man pleaded guilty Wednesday to federal charges that he stole trade secrets from his former employer, Home Depot. Sentencing for Guillermo Martinez, 47, is scheduled for 10 a.m. Feb. 3 before U.S. District Judge Willis B...

NY-23, Sequoia and the Private Corporate Takeover of Your Once-Public Democracy

Posted on November 30, 2009
By Brad Friedman Northern NY News Editor's Note: This in-depth study of the issues in NY-23's e-voting pilot program was written exclusively for The Gouverneur Times. Sequoia's storied history of election failure began at least as far back as 2000, though the evidence of their duplicity would not become known -- and even then just barely -- until 2007 when seven whistleblowers from the company, including Quality Control employees, appeared on camera and by name in a breath-taking investigate report on HDNet...

Starwood and Hilton Talk Settlement in Trade Secrets Case; Hilton Criminal Probe Continues

Posted on November 30, 2009
By Andrew Longstreth Months after Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide obtained an injunction in its Grishamesque trade secrets case against Hilton Hotels, the two sides have been talking settlement. Starwood had alleged that Hilton and two of its executives stole confidential information from Starwood's files to develop Hilton's new Denizen hotels, which was to compete with Starwood's W Hotels...

Jury Deadlocks on Espionage Case Against Chinese

Posted on November 29, 2009
By: Sing Tao Daily After six days of deliberations, a federal jury in San Jose could not reach unanimous verdict on three important espionage charges against two Chinese engineers from Silicon Valley, according to Sing Tao Daily. Lan Lee , a 44-year-old U...

Microsoft's Struggle With i4i Sheds Light On Software Patent Process

Posted on November 29, 2009
By Jennifer Bosavage This fall, Microsoft was briefly barred from selling Word because of a dispute over XML code that i4i claimed infringed on one of the Toronto, Ontario-based company's patents. That trial is ongoing. While some observers questioned why Microsoft didn't resolve the dispute early on, others are interested to see how the dispute will play out and how patent rights will be determined Alternatively, the inventor could rely on trade-secret law to protect the software...

Program to help truckers attracts drug smugglers

Posted on November 29, 2009
By: CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN (AP) LAREDO, Texas -- A U.S. program that offers trusted trucking companies speedy passage across American borders has begun attracting just the sort of customers who place a premium on avoiding inspections: Mexican drug smugglers...

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