This afternoon, the FTC voted to adopt a proposed final rule banning most non-competes with workers in the United States. The final rule provides that it is an unfair method of competition—and therefore a violation of Section...more
4/24/2024
/ Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Federal Labor Laws ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Final Rules ,
FTC Act ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Labor Reform ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Proposed Rules ,
Trade Secrets
On May 31, 2023, a Harris County Texas District Court jury found a telecom company acted in bad faith by filing a $23 million trade secret misappropriation lawsuit against a rival where the underlying technology was found to...more
Recently, Seyfarth Partner Jesse Coleman had the opportunity to present an American Intellectual Property Law Association (“AIPLA”) webinar titled “Working with Experts and Recent Developments in Trade Secrets Damages.”...more
Welcome to the third annual installment of Seyfarth Shaw’s Commercial Litigation Outlook, where our nationally recognized team provides insights about litigation issues and trends to expect in 2023. The continuing global...more
On January 4, 2023, the Dallas Court of Appeals in Texas affirmed a summary judgment in a trade secrets physician staffing case that stands as a warning to practitioners regarding (1) what constitutes sufficient damages...more
On June 17, 2022, the Texas Supreme Court affirmed a lower appellate court’s decision, (which we previously wrote about here), which nixed the plaintiff’s $740 million trade secret win at trial and required the plaintiff to...more
After a four day bench trial on August 10, 2021, a Houston federal judge ruled that the conceptual designs an oil and gas manufacturing company disclosed to its erstwhile collaborator under an NDA were not eligible for trade...more
Throughout 2021, our dedicated Trade Secrets, Computer Fraud & Non-Competes Practice Group hosted a series of CLE webinars that addressed significant trade secret and restrictive covenant issues facing clients today. This...more
After a months-long delay due to an outbreak of COVID-19 during the first trial, a federal jury in Texas awarded a $152 million verdict—including $120 million in punitive damages—in a trade secret misappropriation case...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: In a case of first impression, the Ninth Circuit held that the continued use doctrine is available under the DTSA, and the court permitted a plaintiff to raise a DTSA claim for misappropriation of trade...more
Real estate startup HouseCanary made headlines when it secured a $700 million judgment against Title Source, Inc., now known as Amrock, in a trade secrets misappropriation case. In short, HouseCanary claimed that Amrock...more
On August 7, 2020, the Fifth Circuit addressed an issue presently undecided by the Texas Supreme Court; namely, whether reformation of an overbroad non-compete restriction is appropriate, and perhaps even required, at the...more
The “return to normal” in courts across the country has brought with it a flurry of trade secrets decisions that address some interesting and instructive issues, both procedurally and substantively....more
In a case following a familiar trade-secret set of facts, on April 28, 2020, the Texas First District Court of Appeals in Houston reversed the trial court’s grant of a motion to dismiss under the Texas Citizens Participation...more
In Seyfarth’s first installment in its 2020 Trade Secrets Webinar Series, Seyfarth attorneys Robert Milligan, Jesse Coleman, and Joshua Salinas reviewed the noteworthy legislation, cases, and other legal developments from...more
On January 23, 2020, the Texas Fifth District Court of Appeals in Dallas retracted its previous ruling in the trade secrets dispute Goldberg, et al. v. EMR (USA Holdings) Inc., et al. and issued a new opinion upon rehearing. ...more
Effective on September 1, 2019, the 86th Texas Legislature’s amendments to the Texas Citizen’s Participation Act, Texas Civil Practices and Remedies Code Chapter 27 (“TCPA”) essentially removed the vast majority trade secret...more
In a trilogy of recent cases, the Texas Courts of Appeals have employed the “commercial speech” exception to exclude certain business claims from the scope of the Texas Citizen’s Participation Act (“TCPA”). This trend will...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: Knowledge that a competitor or former employee is misappropriating trade secrets is difficult to come by. At the same time, however, once a company has notice that misappropriation may be occurring, the...more
12/4/2019
/ Appeals ,
Children's Toys ,
Competition ,
Confidential Information ,
Counterclaims ,
Former Employee ,
Intellectual Property Litigation ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Mattel ,
MGA Entertainment ,
Misappropriation ,
Misrepresentation ,
Preservation of Rights ,
Retail Market ,
State and Local Government ,
Statute of Limitations ,
Time-Barred Claims ,
Trade Secrets ,
Uniform Trade Secrets Acts
On August 23, 2019, the United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit ruled that the Texas Citizen’s Participation Act, Texas Civil Practices and Remedies Code Chapter 27 (“TCPA”), did not apply in federal court. Klocke v....more
11/21/2019
/ Anti-SLAPP ,
Burden-Shifting ,
Cause of Action Accrual ,
Discovery ,
Evidence ,
Evidentiary Standards ,
Federal Jurisdiction ,
Federal v State Law Application ,
Motion To Stay ,
Prevailing Party ,
State and Local Government ,
Trade Secrets
The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana recently held that, under the Defend Trade Secrets Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1836, et seq., information included in a patent application remains an actionable...more
9/26/2019
/ Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA) ,
Goods or Services ,
Intellectual Property Litigation ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Misappropriation ,
Motion for Summary Judgment ,
Patent Applications ,
Patent Infringement ,
Patents ,
Popular ,
Public Records ,
Reverse Engineering ,
Trade Secrets ,
Use in Commerce
On August 23, 2019, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued its long-awaited opinion in Klocke v. Watson, 17-11320, 2019 WL 3977545, at *1 (5th Cir. Aug. 23, 2019), holding that the Texas Citizens...more
9/5/2019
/ Anti-SLAPP ,
Attorney's Fees ,
Defamation ,
Diversity ,
First Amendment ,
Free Speech ,
Misappropriation ,
Motion to Dismiss ,
Sanctions ,
Statutory Interpretation ,
Title IX ,
Trade Secrets
On November 13, 2018, the United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit, affirmed the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas’s denial of prevailing party attorneys’ fees in a matter of first impression...more
The Texas Court of Appeals, Third District, issued an opinion in Tejas Vending, LP, et al. v. Tejas Promotions, LLC further delineating the applicability of Texas’s anti-SLAPP statute, the Texas Citizens Participation Act...more
7/12/2018
/ Anti-SLAPP ,
Appeals ,
Breach of Contract ,
Civil Conspiracy ,
Confidential Information ,
Declaratory Relief ,
Gaming ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Misappropriation ,
Non-Disclosure Agreement ,
State and Local Government ,
Trade Secrets
Late last week, the Texas Supreme Court denied a petition for mandamus in which the petitioner sought an order compelling a plaintiff to identify the specific trade secrets it contends were misappropriated, bucking what...more