Intellectual Property Law

New : United States District Court, S.D. Iowa - C&J v. Anderson

Posted on August 23, 2008
Background: Lessors of various equipment to businesses brought action against former employee and competitor, alleging claims for breach of fiduciary duties, civil conspiracy, unjust enrichment, copyright infringement, misappropriation of financial trade secrets, aiding and betting breach of fiduciary duties, and trademark violation...

Court: Charges rightly tossed

Posted on August 21, 2008
BY JERRY MITCHELL An appeals court has upheld the dismissal of most criminal charges against five former Eaton Aerospace employees accused of stealing trade secrets from the Jackson company for aerospace contracts. "It was a home run," declared their attorney, Ed Blackmon Jr...

Enforcing Restrictive Covenants in Times of Layoffs

Posted on August 21, 2008
By Jonathan Stoler In these challenging economic times, layoffs and corporate reorganizations are becoming more commonplace. Employers in the midst of such job actions are also being forced to address an array of employment laws and business issues relating to these matters...

Trade secrets snatched by former software exec., suit claims

Posted on August 21, 2008
By Ann Knef A California company that supplies data application systems to real estate agents is suing a former executive for violating trade secrets. IDX Media LLC of Sebastopol, Calif., claims its former vice president for product development, Daniel Evans of Belleville, solicited multiple clients to end their work with IDX and switch to a new company Evans planned to form...

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Computer Issues When Key Personnel Defect

Posted on August 17, 2008
By Leonard Deutchman Pennsylvania Law Weekly My firm provides digital forensics and e-discovery services. Most of our digital forensics investigations and analyses involve employees who have left their former employers for a rival or to start their own business...

Allstate Admits it has Dirty Hands

Posted on August 17, 2008
Allstate the "good hands" people have decided to forgo hundreds of millions of dollars in profits rather than show their "dirty hands" to Floridians. Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty announced on Friday that Allstate Corp. will give it's existing Florida policyholders an additional 5...

Court of Appeals of Indiana : BAKER v. TREMCO

Posted on August 13, 2008
A former employee brought action against his former employer, a construction products manufacturer business, seeking declaratory judgment that noncompete clause was unenforceable, and damages for tortious interference with a business relationship, breach of contract, and violation of state "blacklisting" statute...

Rethinking 'Reasonable Efforts' to Protect Trade Secrets in a Digital World

Posted on August 13, 2008
Elizabeth A. Rowe University of Florida - Fredric G. Levin College of Law Abstract: One advantage of using trade secret law to protect valuable business information or inventions is the ease and relative inexpensiveness of that form of intellectual property, versus for instance, seeking patent protection...

The Noncompete Ruling Won't Change Anything, Anywhere

Posted on August 11, 2008
By Jason Kincaid Earlier this week, California's Supreme Court reaffirmed the state's position on noncompete clauses: they're almost never valid, except for in a few specific circumstances. While this has been the state's policy since 1872, the law recently came into question in the case of Edwards II v...

Chinese spy sentenced to 15 yrs in US prison

Posted on August 11, 2008
Associated Press WASHINGTON (AFP) -- A Taiwan-born American who admitted spying for China was given more than 15 years in prison, the US Justice Department said Friday. Tai Shen Kuo, 58, of New Orleans, Louisiana, was sentenced by federal court in Virginia to 188 months in prison, and required to forfeit 40,000 dollars, after he pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to deliver US military information to China...

Keeping secrets : Judges sometimes hide all aspects of civil lawsuits

Posted on August 11, 2008
By Tracy Neal and Scott Davis Can knowing about the mere existence of a lawsuit be damaging ? Recently, Circuit Judge Xollie Duncan requested that reporters leave her courtroom. The reason: A hearing in a civil lawsuit. The suit had been filed under seal, which meant not only court filings were sealed, but the proceedings in June were held outside of the press and public...

Calif. High Court Brightens Rule Against Non-Compete Pacts

Posted on August 11, 2008
By Cheryl Miller In a ruling long awaited by the employment law sector, the California Supreme Court on Thursday effectively rejected the use of most non-competition agreements in California (pdf). In Edwards v. Arthur Andersen, S147190, the unanimous court held that a state statute with roots in 19th century laws gives California workers great freedom to switch jobs, to compete against old employers and to solicit former clients...

Maker of Electric Sports Car Sues a Competitor - New York Times

Posted on August 11, 2008
By JOHN MARKOFF SAN FRANCISCO -- Tesla Motors, the Silicon Valley maker of electric sports cars, filed suit in San Mateo Superior Court on Monday against a competing company and two of its employees, saying they stole some of Tesla's design ideas and trade secrets...

Calif. high court bans employee noncompete pacts

Posted on August 11, 2008
by Gina Keating, editing by Richard Chang LOS ANGELES, Aug 7 (Reuters) - The California Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the state's strict ban on most employee noncompetition agreements, ruling that companies cannot in any way limit a former employee's ability to ply his trade...

Jury Verdict : North American Title Co. Inc. v. Liberty Title Co., Land America Financial

Posted on August 09, 2008
The jury awarded a total verdict of $2.8 million. Dan Wentzel, the former president and CEO of plaintiff North American Title Co., founded Liberty Title Co. as a joint venture with Land America Financial Group and Land America Alliance. Approximately 30 employees from three North American Title offices were hired by Liberty Title...

THE IP CONUNDRUM: PROTECT YOUR ASSETS WITH THE PATENT ACT OR THE TRADE SECRETS ACT?

Posted on August 06, 2008
The Recorder, Vol. 132, No. 147, July 30, 2008 Chris Scott Graham and Jill Kopeikin Many companies operate under the assumption that a robust patent portfolio is the sine qua non to the best protection of intellectual property. Consistent with this philosophy, employees are instructed to compile the information necessary to apply for patent protection, and significant company resources are expended in that pursuit...

Norit Americas Announces Lawsuit Alleging Misappropriation of Trade Secrets

Posted on August 06, 2008
Market Watch MARSHALL, Texas, Aug 06, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Norit Americas, Inc. ("Norit") announced today it filed a lawsuit against ADA-ES, Inc. , ADA Environmental Solutions, LLC, and current ADA-ES employees, John Rectenwald and Stephen D. Young...

Revenge: iRobot Selling Former Foe's Machine

Posted on August 06, 2008
By Noah Shachtman Last year, iRobot accused one of its former engineers, Jameel Ahed, of stealing its trade secrets to build his "Negotiator" machine. Today, the company turned the tables, announcing it will start selling Ahed's robot as its own. Ahed and his Negotiator generated enormous interest in the military robotics community, as a low-cost alternative to iRobot's PackBot...

Georgia doctors sue for access to United's contracts with state plan

Posted on August 05, 2008
By Amy Lynn Sorrel Appeals have been filed asking the state Supreme Court to determine whether some documents should be treated as public records or exempted as trade secrets. When the South Georgia Physicians Assn. LLC noticed that the health insurer administering Georgia's state employee health benefits plan was requiring different contract terms for rural doctors than for those in urban areas, the group got suspicious...

YOU CAN STAND UNDER MY UMBRELLA: WEIGHING TRADE SECRET PROTECTION AGAINST THE NEED FOR GREATER TRANSPARENCY IN PERFUME AND FRAGRANCED PRODUCT LABELING

Posted on August 04, 2008
Journal of Intellectual Property Law Spring, 2008 Introduction Most people are probably familiar with the infamous tagline question posed at the conclusion of Britney Spears' provocative "Curious" perfume commercial: "Do you dare?" Ironically, considering the significant restriction trade secret law currently places upon the federal government's ability to enforce its own regulations regarding perfume ingredients, the "Curious" tagline could not possibly ask a better question...

Miss. court says pet food research not public

Posted on August 01, 2008
The Associated Press JACKSON, MISS. --The Iams Company's records from seven years of pet food research at Mississippi State University are not public documents, the state Supreme Court has ruled. In 2006, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sued Mississippi State University...

Two Department of Defense Contractors Plead Guilty to Conspiracies Involving Fuel Supply Contracts

Posted on August 01, 2008
WASHINGTON -- Two U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) contractors, both U.S. citizens who previously lived in Prague, Czech Republic, pleaded guilty today to various conspiracy charges related to their business of providing fuel supply services to the DOD...

Oracle expands theft allegations against SAP

Posted on July 30, 2008
By Brandon Bailey Oracle fired a new volley across the bow of rival software-maker SAP today, alleging in court papers that members of SAP's executive board ignored warnings and knowingly allowed an SAP subsidiary to steal Oracle's trade secrets. The new charges are part of a 2007 lawsuit in which Oracle, the Redwood City-based business software giant, claims that SAP subsidiary TomorrowNow was illegally downloading Oracle's proprietary software and using it to support TomorrowNow customers...

Oracle Steps Up Fight With SAP in Filing - WSJ.com

Posted on July 30, 2008
By Ben Worten Oracle Corp. alleged in a federal-court filing Monday that executives at rival SAP AG knew that an SAP subsidiary was stealing Oracle trade secrets. The filing is the latest salvo in a suit Oracle brought against SAP in U.S. District Court in San Francisco in March 2007...

How to Keep Corporate Secrets a Secret

Posted on July 30, 2008
By H. Abelson, K. Ledeen, H. Lewis One of the problems with corporate data breaches is the catastrophic risk to corporations when trade secrets, customer lists, pricing data and other critical information are exposed. Hal Abelson, Ken Ledeen and Harry Lewis, authors of "Blown to Bits: Your Life, Liberty, and Happiness after the Digital Explosion," explain how companies can use the right mix of process, people and advanced technologies to keep their data secure--and their CIOs out of the headlines...

MPAA hired hacker to 'spy' on The Pirate Bay

Posted on July 30, 2008
by Andre Yoskowitz According to new court documents, it appears that the MPAA hired a hacker to reveal the identities of the administrators of the infamous torrent tracker The Pirate Bay, the same hacker who was found to be 'spying' on the torrent site TorrentSpy last year...

MOTOROLA SUES IPHONE SALES EXECUTIVE OVER TRADE SECRETS

Posted on July 29, 2008
Motorola is suing a former executive now employed by Apple's iPhone sales division, charging him with the theft of trade secrets. Michael Fenger is the defendant, who was an executive for Motorola. According to the complaint, he is now vice president for global iPhone sales after joining Apple in March...

Report: Overseas Intellectual Property Rights Attache Program Is Generally Working Well, but a Comprehensive Operating Plan Is Needed

Posted on July 29, 2008
Department of Commerce Office of Inspector General - United States Patent and Trademark Office, The Overseas Intellectual Property Rights Attaché Program Is Generally Working Well, but a Comprehensive Operating Plan Is Needed, Final Report IPE-19044/July 2008...

After Mixed Signals, $10 Billion Motorola Trade Secrets Dispute Settled

Posted on July 29, 2008
Daily Business Review After a false start, a settlement was reached Tuesday in the $10 billion trade secrets dispute in Florida between Motorola and a defunct Fort Lauderdale-based company. The confidential agreement was reached hours after an earlier hearing to discuss a settlement was canceled...

MACK TRUCKS, INC. CASE

Posted on July 29, 2008
A franchisee brought action against franchisor alleging violation of the Sherman Act and Robinson-Patman Act (RPA). The franchisor counterclaimed alleging misappropriation of trade secrets. The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Ronald L...

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