Aside from the actual games on the field, the college football press has been fixated on one story over the past several weeks: the Michigan "sign stealing" controversy. Michigan head coach (and former Chicago Bears...more
In Van Buren v. United States, the Supreme Court faced the difficult task of determining whether the opaquely-written Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (“CFAA”) would apply to situations in which a person who was authorized to...more
Supreme Court Narrows Federal "Anti-Hacking" Law to Exclude Enforcement Against Those Who Use Otherwise Authorized Access for Improper Purpose -
There is a well-worn legal maxim that "hard cases make bad law." In deciding...more
2019 Patent Trial and Appeal Board Key Practice Updates: A Year in Review -
2019 has been an active year for procedural changes in the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“PTAB”). These changes include not only the PTAB’s...more
Businesses often worry that the information they provide to the government will be disclosed, and with good reason – such information is presumptively available to the public under the Freedom of Information Act...more
12/20/2019
/ Appeals ,
Confidential Information ,
Congressional Intent ,
Exemptions ,
FOIA ,
Food Marketing Institute v Argus Leader Media ,
Motion to Compel ,
Private Commercial or Financial Information ,
Protected Disclosures ,
Reversal ,
SCOTUS ,
SNAP Program ,
Statutory Interpretation ,
Substantial-Competitive-Harm Test ,
Trade Secrets ,
USDA
Although patentees generally do not have great concerns about the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) because of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's secrecy requirements, they may lose control over their information under...more
7/5/2019
/ Appeals ,
Confidential Information ,
Congressional Intent ,
Exemptions ,
FOIA ,
Food Marketing Institute v Argus Leader Media ,
Motion to Compel ,
Private Commercial or Financial Information ,
Protected Disclosures ,
Reversal ,
SCOTUS ,
SNAP Program ,
Statutory Interpretation ,
Substantial-Competitive-Harm Test ,
Trade Secrets ,
USDA
Parties often push experts to testify outside their area of expertise and leave it up to the expert to push back when uncomfortable. If the expert fails to do so, a party's aggressiveness may come back to haunt it before the...more
Employers have a number of tools they can use to protect against their employees walking off with trade secrets; among them, restrictive covenants or non-compete agreements can be extremely powerful. Such agreements avoid the...more
Intelligent Machines - Engines of Intellectual Property Creation? -
Recently, artificial intelligence (AI) has become an increasing part of our daily lives. Many of us utilize virtual assistants such as Apple’s Siri and...more
Two cases this year have demonstrated that, although trade secret protections have become better aligned with protecting high tech trade secrets, there is still a long way to go. First, in Waymo v. Uber, the hard-fought...more
As the saying goes, hard cases make bad law. And it certainly looked improper when Sergey Aleynikov downloaded high-frequency trading ("HFT") source code as he was leaving his job as a Goldman Sachs programmer, at least to...more
The DTSA After One Year: Has the Federal Trade Secrets Law Met Expectations? -
On May 11, 2017, the Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA) – the law that created a Federal cause of action for trade secret misappropriation –...more
9/18/2017
/ Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA) ,
Forum Selection ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Marijuana ,
Misappropriation ,
Patents ,
Principal Place of Business ,
TC Heartland LLC v Kraft Foods ,
Trade Secrets ,
Venue ,
Water Splash v Menon
On May 11, 2017, the Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA) – the law that created a Federal cause of action for trade secret misappropriation – celebrated its first birthday. The law was the result of years of negotiation between...more
Sergey Aleynikov was tried and convicted on criminal charges by both a Federal and a New York state jury; both times, his conviction was reversed. But his luck on appeal may have run out. The Appellate Division, First...more
Supplemental Examination: Potential Benefits vs. Guaranteed Risks -
The America Invents Act of 2011 introduced supplemental examination of patents as a post-grant process intended to limit expensive and unpredictable...more
9/16/2016
/ 3D Printing ,
America Invents Act ,
Compulsory Licenses ,
Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA) ,
Digital Media ,
DMCA ,
EU ,
Indirect Infringement ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Music Streaming ,
Patents ,
Popular ,
Royalties ,
Startups ,
Supplemental Examination ,
Trade Secrets ,
Trademarks ,
UTSA ,
Venture Capital ,
Venture Funding
May 2016 was a banner month for trade secret protection around the world. On May 11, 2016, President Obama signed the Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016 (“DTSA”) into US law, creating a new Federal cause of action for...more
One week after the House Judiciary Committee unanimously reported the Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016 to the House floor, the full House approved the bill, 410-2. The two no votes were from tea party Republicans, Rep....more
After a brief markup session in which no amendments to the bill were proposed, the House Judiciary Committee reported the Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016 to the House floor by unanimous voice vote today. The bill passed the...more
The Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2015,[1] a bill to establish a federal cause of action for trade secret misappropriation, has continued its progress through Congress with a favorable hearing before the Senate Judiciary...more
Patentable Subject Matter after Alice: Best Practices for Responding to 35 U.S.C. § 101 Rejections -
It has been over 20 months since the Supreme Court handed down the landmark decision in Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank Int’l,...more
3/3/2016
/ AFCP ,
America Invents Act ,
Broadest Reasonable Interpretation Standard ,
CLS Bank v Alice Corp ,
Covered Business Method Patents ,
Cuozzo Speed Technologies v Lee ,
Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA) ,
Inter Partes Review (IPR) Proceeding ,
Patent Prosecution Highway ,
Patent-Eligible Subject Matter ,
Patents ,
Section 101 ,
Trade Secrets ,
USPTO Pilot Program
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
9/15/2015
/ Aleynikov ,
Confidential Information ,
Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA) ,
Double Jeopardy ,
Economic Espionage Act ,
Ex Post Facto Clause ,
FBI ,
Goldman Sachs ,
High Frequency Trading ,
Indictments ,
Intellectual Property Litigation ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Misappropriation ,
Motion to Dismiss ,
Popular ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Rule of Lenity ,
Source Code ,
Trade Secrets ,
US v Aleynikov
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
7/7/2015
/ Aleynikov ,
Convictions ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Double Jeopardy ,
European Economic Area (EEA) ,
Ex Post Facto Clause ,
FBI ,
Foreign Commerce ,
Goldman Sachs ,
High Frequency Trading ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Interstate Commerce ,
Misappropriation ,
Source Code ,
Trade Secrets ,
US v Aleynikov ,
Vacated
In This Issue:
- Prior Art Redefined Under the AIA
- PTAB Holds a Firm Line on Additional Discovery
- The Art of Prior Art Searching
- Anticipating a Federal Trade Secret Law
- Trademark...more
11/26/2014
/ Additional Discovery ,
America Invents Act ,
Covered Business Method Proceedings ,
Inter Partes Review (IPR) Proceeding ,
Patent Trial and Appeal Board ,
Patentability Search ,
Patents ,
Prior Art ,
SCOTUS ,
Trade Secrets ,
USPTO
Unlike patents and copyrights, trade secrets have historically been protected primarily under state law rather than federal law. That long history may soon change, as bills to create a federal cause of action for trade secret...more
The first United States Intellectual Enforcement Property Coordinator ("IPEC"), Victoria Espinel, has stepped down after four years in the position. During her tenure, Ms. Espinel worked to strengthen enforcement of...more