News & Analysis as of

Trade Secrets Source Code

A Trade Secret is any information, not generally known or easily ascertainable, by which an enterprise develops an economic advantage over competitors or customers. In order to maintain trade secrets'... more +
A Trade Secret is any information, not generally known or easily ascertainable, by which an enterprise develops an economic advantage over competitors or customers. In order to maintain trade secrets' protected legal status, enterprises must make reasonable efforts to keep the information secret and prevent unnecessary disclosure.  Trade Secrets may include processes, formulas, methods, designs, patterns, et cetera.   less -
EDRM - Electronic Discovery Reference Model

Another Cinderella Situation – Motion Denied as Untimely?

In Fiskars Finland OY AB v. Woodland Tools Inc., 2024 WL 2504717 (W.D. Wisc. May 24, 2024), plaintiff sued for alleged misappropriation of trade secrets. Defendants counterclaimed....more

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP

Artificial Intelligence in the Modern Workplace: Safeguarding Source Code Generated with AI Assistance

Generally, an employer owns all rights in software code created by its employee in the scope of their employment. As outlined in the last edition of this series, this general rule typically applies to independent contractors...more

McDermott Will & Emery

TikTok Makes It Out of West Texas to Sunny Northern California

McDermott Will & Emery on

The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit granted a writ of mandamus ordering the transfer of a case, finding that the district court’s denial of the motion to transfer “was so patently erroneous” that the extreme measure...more

ArentFox Schiff

Litigating Spoliation Claims in Trade Secret Cases: Recent Trends Toward Terminating Sanctions

ArentFox Schiff on

In a previous article, Litigating Spoliation Claims in Trade Secret Cases, we discussed the rise of spoliation in trade secret and restrictive covenant cases. In that article, we provided background on trade secret laws and...more

Holland & Knight LLP

Man vs. Machine: Court Examines Bot's Data Scraping as Improper Means of Appropriating Trade Secrets

Holland & Knight LLP on

In Compulife Software Inc. v. Newman, 959 F.3d 1288 (11th Cir. 2020), the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit examined the intersection between technology and improper use or acquisition of trade secrets....more

Kidon IP

Legal Protection for the Software Arts — Part 5

Kidon IP on

Copyright protection is, generally speaking, formality-free in the US and other member states of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works. A software rights owner does not have to publish, affix...more

Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP

A Cautionary Trade Secrets Tale: Failure To Preserve Potentially Relevant Evidence

Here, we provide a cautionary tale of what can happen to a business that fails to preserve documents that are potentially relevant evidence to pending or threatened trade secrets litigation, and offer some takeaways for...more

Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP

First Department Holds Source Code to Be a Trade Secret and Defines Bounds of Judicial Proceedings Privilege

On November 12, 2019, in BEC Capital, LLC et al. v. Bistrovic et al., 177 A.D.3d 438 (1st Dep’t 2019), the Appellate Division, the First Department issued a decision reversing an order of the Commercial Division and holding...more

Holland & Knight LLP

Recent Criminal Misappropriation of Trade Secrets to China

Holland & Knight LLP on

Trade secrets can be stolen at any point, and such theft can be prosecuted by the Department of Justice. This is evident in recently unsealed charges brought against a software engineer who stole source code from his United...more

Spilman Thomas & Battle, PLLC

Trade Secret Misappropriation and Employee Fiduciary Breach in ASML v. XTAL Results in Large Judgement

On May 3, 2019, following a jury verdict rendered last November, a Santa Clara, California court entered a final judgment for $845 million in favor of semiconductor maker, ASML, in its suit against rival, XTAL, for stealing...more

Jones Day

Court Grants Rare Preliminary Injunction to Autonomous Vehicle Company WeRide

Jones Day on

Court rules that WeRide is likely to prevail on merits of its trade secret misappropriation claims against competitors - In a trade secret misappropriation case between two autonomous vehicle companies, the Northern...more

Holland & Knight LLP

Recent Criminal Prosecutions for Trade Secret Theft

Holland & Knight LLP on

Theft of trade secrets typically spurs civil actions against the offender, but theft of trade secrets can also be prosecuted criminally under the Economic Espionage Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1831 et seq. (the “Act”) and other related...more

Jones Day

Protecting Artificial Intelligence IP: Patents, Trade Secrets, or Copyrights?

Jones Day on

The Situation: Artificial intelligence ("AI") technology is exploding across virtually all industries. Technology companies are innovating at warp speed, and even companies that do not principally identify as "technology...more

Orrick - Trade Secrets Group

The Saga Continues: New York’s Highest Court Will Weigh in on Aleynikov’s Fate

On April 20, 2017, the New York Court of Appeals issued a brief order continuing former Goldman Sachs programmer Sergey Aleynikov’s eight-year voyage through the state’s and country’s legal systems. Here’s the issue: does...more

McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff LLP

New York v. Aleynikov: New York State’s Penal Code (Like Federal Criminal Law) Does Not Cover Electronic Reproduction of Source...

In 2009, Sergey Aleynikov was a computer programmer employed by Goldman Sachs to write high-frequency trading code. He accepted an offer to join a new Chicago-based company, Teza Technologies. Before he left Goldman Sachs,...more

Orrick - Trade Secrets Group

500,000 Lines of Source Code: The New “Intangible Property”

Sergey Aleynikov’s six-year trade secret odyssey through all possible configurations of litigation, civil and criminal, federal and state, may at long last have come to an end after the New York Supreme Court recently...more

McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff LLP

Another Aleynikov Trade Secrets Case Ends with Narrower Statute

In 2009, Sergey Aleynikov was a computer programmer employed by Goldman Sachs to write high-frequency trading code. He accepted an offer to join a new Chicago-based company, Teza Technologies. Before he left Goldman Sachs,...more

Robins Kaplan LLP

IP|Trend: Discovering Source Code

Robins Kaplan LLP on

Source code is increasingly becoming prevalent in litigation. Patent cases, copyright, trade secret, and even mass tort cases can turn on the content and function of source code. Attorneys Seth Northrop and David Prange...more

Orrick - Trade Secrets Group

Court Requires Employer To Pay Legal Fees Of Ex-Employee Charged With Trade Secret Theft

On October 16, 2013, a federal judge in New Jersey ruled that Goldman Sachs must advance the legal fees of a former employee charged with stealing Goldman’s source code. The order is the latest twist in a case that...more

19 Results
 / 
View per page
Page: of 1

"My best business intelligence, in one easy email…"

Your first step to building a free, personalized, morning email brief covering pertinent authors and topics on JD Supra:
*By using the service, you signify your acceptance of JD Supra's Privacy Policy.
- hide
- hide