4 Key Takeaways | Trade Secret Update 2024 Legal Developments and Trends
On July 30, 2024, the Court of Appeals of Virginia overturned a two billion dollar (yes, billion with a ‘b’) jury verdict in the Appian v. Pegasystems trade secret lawsuit. Although the Court of Appeals upheld the verdict of...more
The US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit largely affirmed a multimillion-dollar award against a temp agency for misappropriation of trade secrets and unjust enrichment due to its employee’s act of obtaining proprietary...more
A Fairfax County, Virginia, jury in May 2022 found that Pegasystems Inc. (Pegasystems) misappropriated trade secrets from its competitor, Appian Corp. (Appian), and awarded Appian more than $2 billion in damages – the largest...more
This is the second of two updates on the impact of Motorola Solutions, Inc. v. Hytera Communications Corp. Ltd., No. 22-2370, ___ F.4th ___ (7th Cir. 2024) on trade secret cases. The first update focused on the...more
Arkansas has adopted the Model Uniform Trade Secrets Act with some modifications. We refer to this as the Arkansas Uniform Trade Secrets Act (“AUTSA”) and it can be found at Ark. Code Ann. § 4-75-601, et seq....more
In Palmer v. Teva Canada Limited, the Ontario Court of Appeal upheld the lower court’s decision to deny certification of a proposed product liability class action seeking damages for the alleged increased risk of being...more
Ohio- Enforceability of Arbitration Agreement- Bryan Costin v. Midwest Vision Partners LLC., 8th Dist. Cuyahoga No. 112651, 2024-Ohio-463. The Eighth District Court of Appeals recently affirmed the trial court’s ruling...more
The U.S. Supreme Court recently denied a trade secret owner's petition for certiorari in Trizetto Group, Inc. v. Syntel Sterling Best Shores Mauritius Limited. This leaves unresolved a question of when a wrongdoer's avoided...more
The United States Court of Appeals recently shed light on when—and under what conditions—a plaintiff may seek a monetary recovery under § 502(a)(3) of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). Section 502(a)(3)...more
On May 25, 2023, the Second Circuit issued an opinion in Syntel Sterling Best Shores Mauritius Ltd. v. TriZetto Group, Inc., No. 21-1370 (2d Cir. 2023) that provides guidance regarding recoverable damages in trade secret...more
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says it has taken its first-ever Clean Water Act (CWA) enforcement action against water pollution by so-called “forever chemicals” from a West Virginia chemical plant. On April...more
The Lanham Act- Lewis v. Acuity Real Estate Services, 6th Cir. 22-1406- In this appeal, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the district court’s decision dismissing the complaint under the Lanham Act because such a...more
Bungie, a video game company that created the “Halo” and “Destiny” game series, has been awarded $4.3 million in damages in an arbitration against a creator of cheat software....more
The US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit upheld a jury verdict finding a dietary supplement company liable for misappropriating another company’s research and development (R&D) related to broccoli-seed extract. Caudill...more
The US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit affirmed a district court’s finding of damages in a trade secrets case under Pennsylvania’s version of the Uniform Trade Secrets Act. The Third Circuit explained that it is...more
In August 2018, the Province of British Columbia (Province) commenced a class action on behalf of itself and other provincial and federal governments against approximately 50 pharmaceutical manufacturers, wholesalers, and...more
Real Property Update - Fraudulent Transfer: Real property that was worth less than mortgage encumbering it was not an asset per the plain language of section 726.102(2) and, therefore, could not support fraudulent transfer...more
Massachusetts state and federal courts issued a number of important product liability decisions in 2019. The Product Liability practice group at Nutter recently reviewed these cases. Highlighted below are some of the key...more
Not for the first time, I find myself intrigued by the federal courts’ resistance to hearing state law claims for judicial dissolution of business entities where subject matter jurisdiction otherwise exists based on diversity...more
Courts have long lamented that “computing damages in a trade secret case is not cut and dry,” Am. Sales Corp. v. Adventure Travel, Inc., 862 F. Supp. 1476, 1479 (E.D. Va. 1994), meaning that “every [trade secret] case...more
Ohio courts have long been in agreement that “[i]t is clearly the law in Ohio that an equitable action in quasi-contract for unjust enrichment will not lie when the subject matter of that claim is covered by an express...more
Ten years after the franchisor of the EXIT real estate system entered into a franchise agreement for a franchisee to operate an EXIT franchise in Maitland, Florida, the parties entered into another franchise agreement for a...more
An often sought remedy in trade secret cases is unjust enrichment, which DTSA and several uniform state trade secret acts permit plaintiffs to seek for the unlawful benefit received by defendants "that is not addressed in...more
The U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Eighth and Tenth Circuits recently affirmed district court opinions holding that the Airline Deregulation Act (ADA) preempted state law claims that challenged prices charged by air ambulance...more
In many instances, trademark and trade dress cases are directed to injunctive relief, with damages being almost an afterthought. Not sharply focusing in damages from the outset of a case may be a mistake, particularly given...more