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Trade Secrets › Customer Lists

A Trade Secret is any information, not generally known or easily ascertainable, by which an enterprise develops an economic advantage over competitors or customers. In order to maintain trade secrets'... more +
A Trade Secret is any information, not generally known or easily ascertainable, by which an enterprise develops an economic advantage over competitors or customers. In order to maintain trade secrets' protected legal status, enterprises must make reasonable efforts to keep the information secret and prevent unnecessary disclosure.  Trade Secrets may include processes, formulas, methods, designs, patterns, et cetera.   less -
Proskauer - Life Sciences

Alleged Theft of Drug Pricing Trade Secrets Could Cost Both Victim and Thief

Proskauer - Life Sciences on

Life Sciences is an area ripe for trade secrets misappropriation litigation. In recent news, Merz Pharmaceuticals, LLC filed a lawsuit under the North Carolina Uniform Trade Secrets Act alleging that its former director of...more

Farella Braun + Martel LLP

7 Tips to Help Financial Advisor Firms Protect Their Customer Lists

Farella Braun + Martel LLP on

Customer relationships are a key asset for companies in the financial advising and wealth management industry. In California, however, the law is making it increasingly difficult to stop departing employees from soliciting...more

Jaburg Wilk

Not All Customer Lists are Trade Secrets!

Jaburg Wilk on

Whether a customer list is, in fact, a trade secret depends on a two-step analysis to be applied on a case-by-case basis. The first step relates to efforts to keep the list secret. If so, the second step is a four-factor...more

Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP

Protecting Social Media Contact Lists as Trade Secrets

Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP on

Social media contact lists have become an increasingly important part of a business’s customer lists. While courts are still grappling with who legally “owns” the data that the employee acquired on the employer’s dime—such...more

Fish & Richardson

Trade Secret Protection for Customer Lists: A Checklist

Fish & Richardson on

Businesses invest significant time and resources toward creating and maintaining customer lists. While customer lists were historically relatively simple and straight-forward documents listing customer names and contacts,...more

Orrick - Trade Secrets Group

In Hawaii, “Aloha” May Mean Both Hello And Goodbye, But When Employees Leave, Who Owns The Customer Relationships?

Orrick - Trade Secrets Group on

As we’ve observed over the years, when addressing trade secrets claims based on customer lists, courts have landed all over the place. These cases involve difficult questions such as when an employee develops relationships on...more

Orrick - Trade Secrets Group

#SecretTweets: Protecting Social Media As A Trade Secret?

Orrick - Trade Secrets Group on

Social media today connects people more than ever. It can be a means to bring together long-lost friends, new acquaintances, and love interests, or the public with celebrities, sports teams, new products, and companies—to...more

Payne & Fears

Don’t Let Technology Run Away With Your Customer Information

Payne & Fears on

For many companies, customer information ranks among its most important assets. Yet these days, employees often keep this sensitive customer information in electronic locations that are not readily accessible to or controlled...more

Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Are My Customer Lists a Trade Secret?

Seyfarth Shaw LLP on

A lawyer’s favorite phrase might be “it depends.” And when an employer asks whether its customer lists qualify as a trade secret, “it depends” is often the answer. But even if it’s difficult to definitively state whether...more

Orrick - Trade Secrets Group

Don’t Friend My Friends: Nonsolicitation Agreements Should Account for Social Media Strategies

Orrick - Trade Secrets Group on

As social media becomes an important part of many companies’ sales and branding strategies, issues relating to companies’ ability to protect their investments in such strategies are emerging. Indeed, this blog has previously...more

Orrick - Trade Secrets Group

Baring It All: Judge Orders Swingers’ Club to Produce Email Distribution List

Orrick - Trade Secrets Group on

A recent case in the Southern District of Florida serves as a reminder that even trade secrets may be subject to production to opposing counsel. Magistrate Judge Jonathan Goodman recently ordered a defendant “swingers’” club...more

Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP

Top 10 Ways to Protect Your Company’s Data

Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP on

You know how important data is to your business and you have been hearing about data breaches for more than a decade, but where do you find a simple, straightforward summary of how to protect your company? That is a question...more

Smith Anderson

Protecting Company Relationships and Information Upon an Employee Departure

Smith Anderson on

Learn how your company can prepare to act quickly and strategically to protect important relationships, information and trade secrets at the time that a key employee leaves. This webinar will review the latest developments in...more

Adler Pollock & Sheehan P.C.

To Void Or To Modify? Courts Have The Final Say On Voiding Or Rewriting A Non-Compete Agreement

Adler Pollock & Sheehan P.C. on

“This has been a trend for a long time; the days of lifetime employment are long since over.” — Marc Andreeson Anticipating that employees do not always stay with an employer for the duration of their careers,...more

Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart,...

Striking a Balance: Alabama’s Newly-Amended Restrictive Covenant Statute

Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart,... on

When Alabama Governor Robert Bentley signed House Bill 352 into law on June 11, 2015, he repealed Alabama’s bare bones restrictive covenant statute and replaced it with a detailed codification of much of Alabama’s restrictive...more

Poyner Spruill LLP

Go Head Over Heels To Protect Trade Secrets (And Other Gymnastics Related Puns)

Poyner Spruill LLP on

Face it. No matter what industry you are in and no matter how big your company, there will come a day when one of your most valuable employees doesn't work there anymore. When that happens, it's natural to feel disappointed...more

Smith Anderson

North Carolina Business Court Revisits When Customer-Related Information is a Trade Secret

Smith Anderson on

The North Carolina Business Court recently revisited the question of when a business’s customer-related information can be considered trade secrets. In Southern Fastening Systems, Inc. v. Grabber Construction Products, Inc.,...more

Orrick - Trade Secrets Group

Securing your Network: Claiming Contacts as Trade Secrets

Orrick - Trade Secrets Group on

The paradigmatic trade secret is something that is obviously technical, such as source code or the formula for Coke. Though trade secrets protection is not limited to technical trade secrets, it can sometimes be tricky to...more

Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Aspects of Private Social Media Groups May Be Protectable Under Illinois Trade Secret Law

Seyfarth Shaw LLP on

In Illinois federal court, a plaintiff alleged aspects of their LinkedIn group were trade secrets misappropriated by the defendant. The defendant moved to dismiss for failure to state a claim. The court denied the motion in...more

Brooks Pierce

An Interesting Trade Secrets Case From The Business Court

Brooks Pierce on

If you were unsure whether customer information held by your client -- like customer contact information, sales reports, prices and terms books, sales memos, sales training manuals, commission reports, and vendor information...more

Levenfeld Pearlstein, LLC

Social Media in the Context of Post-Employment Litigation

Levenfeld Pearlstein, LLC on

At the frontier of post-employment litigation is the issue of how to address social media contacts and communications. To date, while courts in other jurisdictions, such as California and Colorado, have passed on such...more

Brooks Pierce

Is Your Client's Customer Information A Trade Secret? Maybe, If You Plead It Specifically Enough.

Brooks Pierce on

I have remarked before how hard the Business Court has been on Plaintiffs making trade secrets claims. You can look here and here for example of these prior posts. The Court has often dismissed trade secrets claims on a...more

Orrick - Trade Secrets Group

New Strings Attached: LinkedIn Contacts Are Now Trade Secrets?

Orrick - Trade Secrets Group on

From a birds-eye view, Cellular Accessories For Less, Inc. v. Trinitas, LLC appears to be a typical dispute between an employer and its former employee. However, a closer look reveals an issue new to the world of trade...more

Fenwick & West LLP

Are LinkedIn Contacts The Employer's Trade Secrets?

Fenwick & West LLP on

A federal district court in California held in Cellular Accessories For Less, Inc. v. Trinitas LLC that whether LinkedIn contact information can be an employer's trade secret is a factual dispute that must be decided by a...more

Fenwick & West LLP

Fenwick Employment Brief - October 2014

Fenwick & West LLP on

New Laws Affecting California Employers - The 2014 legislative session is in the books, and it produced several new laws affecting employers in California, including: Private arbitration companies must provide...more

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