Meritas Capability Webinar - California’s Prohibition Against Non-Compete Agreements (B&P Code § 16600), the Protection of Trade Secrets and the Practical Relationship Between the Two
Zynga May Shed Light on Its Own Practices in Going After Former Employee for Trade Secrets Theft
The Virginia Court of Appeals reversed a $2 billion jury award for trade secret misappropriation under the Virginia Uniform Trade Secrets Act (VUTSA). The appellate court found error in the jury instruction for unjust...more
Arkansas has adopted the Model Uniform Trade Secrets Act with some modifications. We refer to this as the Arkansas Uniform Trade Secrets Act (“AUTSA”) and it can be found at Ark. Code Ann. § 4-75-601, et seq....more
How can you defend yourself if you are accused of misappropriation of trade secrets? This is a complex area of the law and there is no one-size-fits-all defense. Developing a strategy to successfully defend against a claim...more
The 2016 enactment of the Defend Trade Secrets Act (“DTSA”) has led to an increase in trade secret litigation. The DTSA codified into federal law the right of an owner of a trade secret to sue in federal court when its trade...more
A trade secret derives its value by being kept secret, yet a trade secret owner is required to identify its trade secret at some point during litigation to apprise the defendant as to what information was allegedly...more
A federal district court recently issued summary judgment in favor of a retail defendant in a trade secret misappropriation case involving the alleged misappropriation of a CBD cream formula. On September 3, 2020, Healthcare...more
In This Issue - Section 230 and the Future of Content Moderation - We analyze Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act—the 1996 law that provides a legal shield for internet providers from content created by their...more
Real estate startup HouseCanary made headlines when it secured a $700 million judgment against Title Source, Inc., now known as Amrock, in a trade secrets misappropriation case. In short, HouseCanary claimed that Amrock...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: Knowledge that a competitor or former employee is misappropriating trade secrets is difficult to come by. At the same time, however, once a company has notice that misappropriation may be occurring, the...more
Hiring external contractors is common practice in the fast-paced tech-industry where talent is scarce and in high-demand, but such a practice can expose a company’s most valuable IP to the confidentiality measures, or lack...more
After a weeklong June trial, a Texas federal jury awarded Six Dimensions, Inc. (“Six Dimensions”), a digital marketing firm, $287,000 for its breach-of-contract claim against its former employee but rejected its behemoth $50...more
Virtually every state has adopted The Uniform Trade Secrets Act (“UTSA”) in one form or another. As enacted, the UTSA typically preempts “other laws of this State providing civil remedies for misappropriation of trade...more
On September 13, the Ninth Circuit heard oral arguments on an issue of first impression in Anheuser-Busch Cos. v. James Clark, No. 17-15591 (9th Cir. 2015). ...more
A year after the 2016 passage of the Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA), the number of trade-secret case filings in federal district courts has spiked upward, according to a recent research report....more
In Texas Advanced Optoelectronic Solutions v. Renesas Electronics America, the Federal Circuit held that there is no right to a jury for determining disgorgement of profits for trade secret misappropriation under Texas common...more
In This Issue - US Taxation of IP After Tax Reform - U.S. taxation of intellectual property has become astoundingly more complex after the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The new rules are so complex that the IRS and Treasury...more
In a recently developing story, on June 20, 2018, automaker and renewable energy giant Tesla filed suit against its now former employee Martin Tripp in the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada. ...more
It’s a date! Or a dating app, at least. Texas courts are ablaze with competing allegations from online dating companies Match and Bumble that each has misappropriated the other’s trade secrets. Swipe right (or up) to learn...more
In every trade secrets case, the plaintiff faces the same fundamental dilemma: In order to enforce their rights in court, they must identify (at least to some degree) the trade secrets at issue. ...more
Earlier this month, a federal court in the Middle District of Tennessee denied an employer’s motion to compel arbitration, finding that it waived its right to arbitration by engaging in litigation....more
On October 6, 2017, a federal jury in Utah entered a $2.1 million trade secret verdict in favor of Bimbo Bakeries USA. Following a trial that wrapped up more than four years of litigation, the jury concluded that defendant...more
Trade secrets derive their commercial value from being secret. When trade secrets are misappropriated, litigation may be necessary to stop a competitor from exploiting them in the marketplace. Yet litigating...more
AFS, a company specializing in streamlining shipping costs and logistics, had its eight count amended complaint streamlined to only one—its Tennessee Uniform Trade Secrets Act (“TUSTA”) claim—primarily due to preemption and...more
In little under a year after its enactment, a Federal Court jury in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania issued the first verdict under the Defend Trade Secrets Act in favor of the Plaintiff Dalmatia Import Group, Inc. The...more
Trade secret misappropriation cases create a unique problem for courts. The parties become quickly embroiled in litigation over the misappropriation of trade secrets, sometimes with only bare-bone allegations of those trade...more