Intellectual Property Law

Eight Of America's Most Secretive Companies

Posted on September 03, 2010
By: 247 Wallst. Charles B. Stockdale, Michael B. Sauter, Douglas A. McIntyre Secrecy is critical to more businesses than most people might imagine. Entire industries are based to some extent on the process of creating goods and services and then putting them behind walls of secrecy...

GameStreamer Execs File Lawsuits Over Trade Secrets, Religious Discrimination

Posted on September 03, 2010
By Leigh Alexander, Kris Graft Tim Roberts and Terrance Taylor, former CEO and CFO of digital distribution provider GameStreamer, have filed a countersuit against the company's current board chairman and majority stakeholder, Ronald Westman. Roberts and Taylor, who resigned from the company in May 2010, claim Westman used predatory loans to gain his majority share, according to court documents received by Gamasutra...

E*Trade Escapes Enrichment Claims

Posted on September 03, 2010
By JEFF D. GORMAN (CN) - E*Trade was not unjustly enriched by its misappropriation of another company's trade secrets because it lost money using them, a California appeals court ruled. Ajaxo Inc. successfully sued E*Trade for misappropriation of trade secrets regarding stock trading through wireless devices...

Judge Sets Trial Date for New Barbie v. Bratz Showdown

Posted on August 06, 2010
By: Alison Frankel Santa Ana, Calif., federal district court judge David Carter issued an order setting a trial date of Jan. 11 for Mattel's broad array of claims against the upstart doll maker MGA Entertainment. In a separate order Monday, Judge Carter denied MGA's motion to dismiss Mattel's RICO claims, finding that Barbie's parent company adequately pled predicate acts of mail fraud, wire fraud, and obstruction of justice (among other things) against MGA...

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Crocs settles trade-secret swiping suit with Columbia

Posted on August 06, 2010
By: Rita Wold Columbia Sportswear has settled a trade-secrets lawsuit against Crocs, the Niwot-based maker of colorful shoes. The lawsuit stemmed from an incident in which Crocs hired a Columbia employee as an independent contractor. "Columbia alleged claims of misappropriation of trade secrets, intentional interference with contract, and aiding and abetting the employee's breach of his duty of loyalty to Columbia," according to the press release...

Bellator Attorney: UFC 'Trade Secrets' Lawsuit Unmerited

Posted on August 05, 2010
By: Loretta Hunt Zuffa LLC, the parent company to the Ultimate Fighting Championship and World Extreme Cagefighting, filed suit against prominent fighter agent Ken Pavia and Bellator Fighting Championships last Wednesday in Clark County District Court in Nevada...

Web Development Company Discloses 5 Trade Secrets of Contact Form Development

Posted on July 15, 2010
Company: Web Development Company Country: India Contact: Sparsh Hence Sparsh Technologies have come up with guidelines to create a good contact form which can be useful to all including an already established web development company. Here are a few things the web developers can do to enhance the contact page: 1...

Feds Will Retry Trade Secret Count in Economic Espionage Case

Posted on July 15, 2010
Dan Levine The Recorder Prosecutors won't give up trying to convict a pair of Silicon Valley engineers, even though a judge and jury junked most of their case and one of the defendants is broke. The Justice Department has been vocal about blocking technology leaks to foreign governments, especially China...

EBay Sued for $3.8 Billion Over XPRT Payment Patents

Posted on July 15, 2010
By Victoria Slind-Flor EBay Inc., the most-visited U.S. e-commerce site, and units including PayPal Inc. were sued by XPRT Ventures LLC for $3.8 billion over claims the online retailer infringed patents related to e-commerce payment systems. EBay infringed six patents for online payments and stole trade secrets by sharing information in a patent application despite a confidentiality agreement, Greenwich, Connecticut- based XPRT said yesterday in a complaint in U...

HP hit with 'trade secrets theft' law suit

Posted on July 03, 2010
By: Daniel Shane Hewlett-Packard has been hit with a law suit alleging that it 'stole' trade secrets relating to printer cartridges. US imaging supplies firm Turbon International claims that HP offered potentially lucrative cartridge replacement contracts to the vendor in December 2008 in exchange for a "unique understanding" of how it makes money from used cartridges...

Trade-secret war over Hollywood set locations

Posted on July 03, 2010
By Eriq Gardner LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) Universal Locations is in the business of providing film locations for studios such as Warner Bros., Paramount, Universal (no relation), 20th Century Fox, and most of the big television networks. In a new lawsuit, the company claims its secrets were stolen when two former employees took confidential information to competitor, Site to Site Locations...

Kagan sought secrecy in 4 of 5 open gov't cases

Posted on June 23, 2010
By SHARON THEIMER (AP) Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan's arguments as solicitor general in several cases on government secrecy were at odds with a promise of transparency made by her boss and top client, President Barack Obama. The FCC had released some of the information under an open records request, but withheld some, citing FOIA exemptions that cover trade secrets and humans' right to privacy...

Trade Secrets and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act

Posted on June 21, 2010
By: Laurie Berke-Weiss New York Law Journal The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, 18 USC §1030, has emerged as a vehicle for trade secret misappropriation claims where a computer transmission is involved in the transfer or destruction of corporate data from a computer whose use in some way affects interstate commerce...

Starwood may pursue Hilton trade secret theft case

Posted on June 21, 2010
By: Deepa Seetharaman and Jonathan Stempel Hilton Worldwide lost its bid to dismiss a lawsuit by rival hotel operator Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc (HOT.N) that accused it and two former Starwood executives of stealing trade secrets. U.S. District Judge Stephen Robinson on Wednesday ruled that Starwood had presented sufficient evidence to allow the case against Hilton, which is owned by private equity firm Blackstone Group LP (BX...

Palace: Ex-staffers stole trade secrets

Posted on June 21, 2010
By: Mike Martindale The Detroit News Pontiac -- The folks at The Palace of Auburn Hills figured a lot of business savvy blew out the door when longtime president and CEO Tom Wilson took a job with Detroit businessman Mike Ilitch in February. But they apparently didn't count on Wilson wooing away nine key Palace employees who, a lawsuit now alleges, stole confidential data to fill seats and suites at Joe Louis Arena and unlawfully compete for sponsors, advertisers, concessionaires and vendors...

Council to discuss 'trade secrets and the purchase of property' on Tuesday

Posted on June 21, 2010
Hudsonhubtimes.com Hudson Mayor William Currin has called a special meeting of Council on June 22 at 7:30 p.m. in Town Hall to discuss "trade secrets and the purchase of property for public purposes." The discussion will take place in executive session, which means it is not open to the public.

Bakery firm sues to protect secret of 'nooks and crannies'

Posted on June 21, 2010
One of the nation's largest bakeries has asked a federal court to help protect valuable trade secrets - the recipe and processes responsible for the trademarked "nooks and crannies" of Thomas' English Muffins. These closely guarded details are fully known only by a handful of executives, and now one of them has been offered a job by Hostess Brands -  the maker of Wonder Bread, Twinkies, and other bakery goods...

BDO Licensor Frontech Accused of Unauthorized use of INVISTA Trade Secrets

Posted on June 20, 2010
By: Jodie Stutzman INVISTA filed a suit yesterday against Houston-based Frontech Inc. for misappropriation of trade secrets, theft, false advertising and unfair competition. "INVISTA is a company known for its world-class technology and continuous innovation" The trade secrets at issue involve INVISTA's proprietary process for manufacturing butanediol (BDO), a chemical intermediate with applications including automobile parts, adhesives, personal care products and spandex...

Concert costs 'trade secrets'

Posted on June 09, 2010
By Leah Wynalek The Lantern This year the Ohio Union Activities Board spent students' money to bring big names such as Drake, Kings of Leon and Cobra Starship to campus. Although some students are satisfied with the artists OUAB brings to Ohio State, others might wonder exactly how much they are paying for concerts they don't attend...

Much Ado About Muffins in Key IP Case at 3rd Circuit

Posted on June 09, 2010
By: Shannon P. Duffy The Legal Intelligencer The fast-tracked appeal in Bimbo Bakeries USA Inc. v. Botticella reviewed a February ruling in which U.S. District Judge R. Barclay Surrick enjoined Chris Botticella, a former senior vice president at Bimbo, from starting to work for Hostess Inc...

Utah high court revives PacifiCorp trade secrets case

Posted on May 27, 2010
By Steven Oberbeck The Utah Supreme Court has given new life to a lawsuit by a Texas company that claims PacifiCorp pilfered its trade secrets and used them to concoct it own winning bid for the Currant Creek power plant near Mona. Dallas-based USA Power filed a lawsuit in late 2005 seeking up to $500 million in damages from PacifiCorp...

When trade secrets meet Facebook

Posted on May 25, 2010
By: Richard C. Darwin and Erin Welsh Computerworld Social networking sites are changing the way people interact, socially and professionally. Sites like Facebook and LinkedIn let people establish relationships and store information on their contacts...

Federal Judge Trashes Novel Economic Espionage Case

Posted on May 25, 2010
By: Dan Levi The Recorder A jury already gave the government a gut shot in its high profile espionage prosecution against two Silicon Valley engineers. On Friday, Northern District of California Judge James Ware fired one right into the heart of the case, throwing out two economic spying counts on which the jury had hung...

A Costly Look at How Sausage Is Made

Posted on May 25, 2010
By: Robert Willens C&F Packing won its trade secret case against Pizza Hut last year, but found out the hard way that settlements related to trade-secret misappropriation are taxed as ordinary income. Last year, the shareholders of C&F Packing Co. found themselves on the winning side of a trade secret settlement...

Utah high court revives PacifiCorp trade secrets case

Posted on May 20, 2010
By: Steven Oberbeck The Utah Supreme Court has given new life to a lawsuit by a Texas company that claims PacifiCorp pilfered its trade secrets and used them to concoct it own winning bid for the Currant Creek power plant near Mona. Dallas-based USA Power filed a lawsuit in late 2005 seeking up to $500 million in damages from PacifiCorp...

Lockheed Withheld Discovery Documents in Trade Secrets Case, Court Records Show

Posted on May 19, 2010
By: R. Robin McDonald Fulton County Daily Report Hundreds of pages of court documents unsealed by U.S. District Judge Charles A. Pannell after he vacated a $37 million trade secrets verdict won by Lockheed Martin last year reveal that the company withheld internal corporate e-mails from the court that may have contradicted testimony of its witnesses...

Criticism of Secret Oil Dispersant in Gulf Grows Louder in U.S.

Posted on May 19, 2010
By: Stacy Feldman Scientists and ocean advocates stepped up warnings this week of potential dangers from chemical dispersants, as oil giant BP released unprecedented amounts of a classified and toxic chemical to thin the Gulf of Mexico oil slick before it reaches shore...

Purchaser of product made through use of another entity's trade secret is not liable

Posted on May 19, 2010
Townsend and Townsend and Crew LLP By: Richard Grossman In a comprehensive analysis of the California Uniform Trade Secrets Act (Civil Code §3426 et seq.) ("CUTSA"), the California Court of Appeal recently determined that a seller's unauthorized use of trade secrets in the creation of its product does not impose liability for misappropriation of the trade secrets on those who merely purchase and use the product, even if the purchasers were on notice of the alleged trade secret theft...

Hospira, Inc. Named as Defendant in Theft of Trade Secrets Case

Posted on May 10, 2010
By: PRWeb Pursuant to Case # BC424826 filed in the Superior Court of the State of California, County of Los Angeles, Central District, Ivera Medical's amended complaint alleges that Amsino and Hospira misappropriated Ivera's trade secrets relating to the design of a disinfecting cap, both by the unauthorized disclosure of those trade secrets and by the use of Ivera's trade secrets to develop Hospira's EffectIV? Disinfecting Cap...

Jury clears Livermore lab officials of trade secret theft allegations

Posted on May 09, 2010
By: Suzanne Bohan Contra Costa Times An Alameda County jury ruled in favor of Lawrence Livermore National Security, or LLNS, in a trial alleging it stole trade secrets from a Bay Area inventor, according to a statement released Monday. LLNS runs Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, which helps manage the nation's nuclear weapons stockpile and engages in multidisciplinary research under contract with the Department of Energy...

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