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
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
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
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
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
In a meaty decision involving the intersection of restrictive covenant and franchise law, the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio recently denied a request by D.P. Dough Franchising, LLC (“D.P....more
Employer Is Entitled To Recover $4 Million In Attorney's Fees From EEOC - CRST Van Expedited, Inc. v. EEOC, 578 U.S. ___, 136 S. Ct. 1642 (2016) - The EEOC filed suit against CRST (a trucking company) alleging...more
Counter-defendants claimed that counterclaims 1(breach of contract), 4(breach of duty of loyalty), 5(tortious interference with contractual relations) and 6 misappropriation of trade secrets) are procedurally improper. The...more
There are indeed limits to the reach of the anti-SLAPP statute, particularly in the trade secret context. In West Hills Research and Development, Inc. v. Terrence M. Wyles, a California appellate court ruled that engaging in...more
The basics of the Texas Anti-SLAPP law In part three we are going to deep dive into a specific case that has garnered a lot of attention-Schlumberger v. Rutherford which is currently on appeal to the Houston Court of...more