A recent federal court decision in T&T Management, Inc. v. Choice Hotels, Inc. underscores key contractual and operational considerations for franchisors. T&T filed suit in U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota...more
A recent lawsuit in Texas highlights the challenges social media influencers face in protecting their intellectual property. Sydney Nicole Gifford, a well-known influencer, claims that Alyssa Sheil copied her “vibe,” –...more
In Valkyrie AI LLC v. PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP, 2024 N.Y. Slip Op. 06141 (1st Dept. Dec. 5, 2024) (here), the Appellate Division, First Department affirmed an order involving claims for unfair competition, tortious...more
We are now in the era of freedom of contract in the logistics arena. While contracts provide many protections to contracting parties, they can also be used offensively, to affirmatively protect legal rights. ...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
With artificial intelligence (AI) taking the world by storm and generative AI making content creation easier than ever, legal problems regarding intellectual property and rights to publicity have inevitably started popping...more
On July 13, 2023, a New York intermediate appellate court held that Iberdrola could continue pursuing all but one of its claims against a bevy of lenders in connection with a construction contract for a power plant in...more
The New York Knicks just sued their former employee and his new employer, the Toronto Raptors, in a case that can teach employers a lot about trade secret misappropriation. The August 21 lawsuit accuses their Eastern...more
At the beginning of the pandemic, concerns were raised that trade secret misappropriation might take a new form. Indeed, with large swaths of the workforce working from home, spouses, roommates, or others living in the same...more
In a late-March 2023 decision out of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, a court denied a plaintiff's request for attorneys' fees against a defendant who filed "objectively specious" counterclaims...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit has found that employees can breach their duty of loyalty to their employers and tortiously interfere with a business expectancy by competing against their employer for the...more
Addressing personal jurisdiction and forum non conveniens in a software licensing dispute, the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit upheld a district court’s exercise of personal jurisdiction over a Dutch entity and the...more
As noted in our December 21, 2021 post, Complainants AbbVie Inc., AbbVie Biotechnology Ltd. and AbbVie Operations Singapore Pte. Ltd. filed a complaint at the International Trade Commission against Respondents Alvotech hf.,...more
A federal magistrate judge in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida, in a trade secrets dispute involving CBD-based pain cream, recently granted summary judgment in favor of all but one...more
A judge from the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit sitting by designation in the US District Court for the District of Delaware denied a motion to dismiss claims of misappropriation of trade secrets, tortious...more
During the course of a trade secrets litigation, neglecting to preserve electronically stored information (“ESI”) may result in a finding of spoliation. In a recent Order issued by Judge Edward Davila (United States District...more
The line between aggressive business competition and unlawful conduct can sometimes be difficult to determine. Many different theories of tort liability have developed over the years to address the variations of unlawful...more
Switching from defense to offense, Zillow Group, Inc., best known for its residential real estate marketplace technology, recently filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington alleging a...more
The Third Circuit skirted the issue as to the means by which the employer, Scherer Design Group (“SDG”) found out about the theft. In the end, the fact that an employer may have violated the common law by accessing private...more
The equitable defense of "unclean hands" is often raised but rarely proven. Sometimes stated as "he who comes into equity must come with clean hands," it is based on the maxim that "he that hath committed iniquity shall not...more
In drafting initial pleadings, some litigators assert every cause of action that could possibly fit the facts, so as to protect their clients from every angle. This approach requires extra care when one of the claims arises...more
Twenty years ago the effort to sequence the human genome turned into a race between a consortium of publicly funded institutions and a company called Celera, with Craig Venter at its helm. ...more
In a classic example of bad facts creating bad law, a federal judge in Kentucky recently denied a motion to dismiss claims brought against attorneys who allegedly counseled employees to breach a non-compete agreement and...more
Texas Advanced Optoelectronic Solutions, Inc. v. Renesas Electronics America, Inc., Appeal Nos. 2016-2121, -2208, -2235 (Fed. Cir. 2018)?- In an appeal from a jury trial, the Federal Circuit addressed numerous issues...more
Federal Circuit Summaries - Before Dyk, Bryson, and Taranto. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. Summary: A plaintiff has no 7th Amendment right to a jury trial for a claim...more