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
Are certain claims prevented when bringing a trade secret claim? Yes. Generally speaking the Arkansas Uniform Trade Secrets Act (AUTSA) displaces conflicting tort, restitutionary, and other law concerning the misappropriation...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
Enforceability of releases for unknown claims at the time of settlement is a well-established legal principle, as highlighted in the recent case, arrivia Inc. v. Rowley, No. CV-23-01039-PHX-DLR, 2023 WL 7386384 (D. Ariz. Nov....more
Don’t just sit by and watch in alarm as a former employee, contractor, or competitor poaches your clients. Texas law protects valuable trade secrets from misuse and misappropriation – including client lists. These protections...more
Earlier this month, plaintiff Bright Side, LLC dba Herbal Edibles, a manufacturer of cannabis edibles, filed a lawsuit in New Mexico state court to enforce a 3-year non-compete and enjoin the misappropriation of its trade...more
When trade secret lawyers advise executives transitioning to a job with a competitor, they typically tell them to “take nothing with you” on the way out – meaning that no confidential, proprietary or trade secret information...more
Late last year, a California appellate court reaffirmed longstanding principles that have important lessons for employers hoping to prevent their employees from taking trade secrets with them if they leave to work for a...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
In In re Muhs, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit was called upon to decide whether “the meaning of ‘willful and malicious’ under Alaska law is identical to the meaning of ‘willful and malicious’ under...more
Addressing a bench trial decision concerning a former employee’s retention of confidential information and violation of a non-compete provision, the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit found no abandonment of the...more
From sweeping legislation to unexpected case law, and everything in between, 2018 brought a lot of changes to unfair competition law....more
With the holidays behind us and our calendars flipped over to 2019, we’re taking a look back at some key trade secrets developments of the past year. ...more
On October 25, the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts denied motions for injunctive relief in a case involving trade secrets allegedly stolen by a departing consultant using his personal computer to sync...more
In tandem with the Massachusetts Noncompetition Act, which reformed Massachusetts law governing non-compete agreements (described here in detail), Massachusetts has adopted its version of the Uniform Trade Secrets Act (the...more
The Massachusetts General Court has passed legislation that, if signed by the governor, will comprehensively reform the law governing employee noncompetition agreements and trade-secret misappropriation. If enacted, these...more
While the Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016 (“DTSA”) has only been in effect for a few months, the first wave of cases raising DTSA claims have started to generate federal decisions. In what appears to be the first substantive...more
The federal Defend Trade Secrets Act (the President signed it on May 11th) went on the books with a lot of fanfare. For the first time, employers (and other trade secret owners) have a federal law claim for trade secret...more
Recently, the Texas Supreme Court provided its first opinion interpreting the Texas Uniform Trade Secrets Act in a case involving an issue that often causes discomfort to lawyers on both sides of the “v” in trade secret...more
On April 27, 2016, Congress passed the Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA), which President Obama promises to sign soon. This proposed legislation, which is designed to be an expansion of the Economic Espionage Act of 1996, would...more
On January 13, before the Texas Supreme Court, two major oil-and-gas-services companies disputed whether Texas’s new trade secret laws require a trial court to exclude a party’s corporate representative from a hearing at...more