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 recent lawsuit filed by the New York Knicks against a former employee, the Toronto Raptors’ parent organization, and the Raptors’ head coach, could be a harbinger of a rise in employment and trade secret litigation 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
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
It’s a fact pattern that repeatedly arises in trade secret cases: a company hires someone who has a confidentiality agreement with their former employer. Just before (or shortly after) being hired, the individual emails...more
If a business engages in bad behavior like intentional interference with contract and tortious interference with business relations, then it may not use Subchapter V of Chapter 11 to discharge debts based on that bad...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
When hiring new employees – especially those who are currently employed or who recently have been employed by a competing company or organization – it’s always a best practice to ask them if they are subject to an employment...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
In In re Amerisciences, a bankruptcy trustee sued a bankrupt company’s former officers for breach of fiduciary duty regarding the theft of trade secrets. No. 18-20394, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 20635 (5th Cir. July 11, 2019). ...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
“Beer: The cause and solution to all of life’s problems.” Mr. Homer J. Simpson would love the recent case of a Massachusetts craft beer company that has been trying in federal court to get the employment website Glassdoor...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