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Intellectual Property Law

Womble Trade Secrets Blog

Womble Carlyle lawyers Press Millen and Todd Sullivan follow trade secrets law.

Post Frequency: 2.7/day

Last Entry: May 17, 2016 at 17:52:00

Trade Secrets and Muffins ? The Appeal

Posted on July 29, 2010
The Third Circuit has upheld the injunction in the English Muffin case blocking an employee who had access to trade secrets at his former employer from starting work with the new employer. Legal Intelligencer has the story here.We wrote about the case when it began in January here and Todd was quoted shortly thereafter in an article in the National Law Journal...

Medical Device Industry to FDA: Your Transparency Plans Implicate Our Trade Secrets

Posted on July 27, 2010
The Hill is reporting that the Advanced Medical Technology Association (AdvaMed) has recently raised concerns with a transparency task force?s recommendations regarding disclosures by the Food and Drug Administration. AdvaMed's statement is synopsized below: ?These draft proposals, while well-intentioned, would have a number of negative effects,? writes Technology and Regulatory Affairs Vice President Janet Trunzo in 21 pages of comments...

Office Depot Sues Florida Attorney General in Legal Bid to Keep Pricing Data Out of Public's Hands

Posted on July 26, 2010
We continue to see more of these lawsuits - private companies who need to insure that the government doesn't release information provided to the government pursuant to a government inquiry or investigation.The South Florida Business Journal is reporting that Office Depot has sued the Florida Attorney General in response to the Naples Daily News requesting certain Office Depot documents be released pursuant to the freedom of information act or its state counterpart...

Trade Secrets and Dolls ? The Appeal

Posted on July 24, 2010
We first reported on the Mattel-MGA Bratz doll trade secrets dispute nearly four years ago here. Mattel claimed that toy maker MGA used its trade secrets in putting together its Bratz line of dolls which became a formidable competitor to Mattel?s Barbie...

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Husband-Wife Accused of Trade Secret Theft Relating to GM Hybrid Technology

Posted on July 22, 2010
The Associated Press is reporting that a former General Motors engineer and her husband conspired to steal trade secrets about hybrid vehicles and use the information to make private deals with Chinese competitors, according to a federal indictment unsealed Thursday...

Trade Secrets Unicorn: Economic Espionage Act Charge Against Former Dow Chemical Employee for Theft to Benefit a Foreign Government - China

Posted on July 21, 2010
To our knowledge, there's been only one known conviction under the "to benefit a foreign government" part of the federal Economic Espionage Act: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/06/19/BARD11B9U7.DTL. The Boston Globe is reporting that a scientist from Westborough, Massachusetts passed on trade secrets worth more than $100 million to China about a commercial insecticide developed by Dow Chemical Company...

FusionStorm and Employees Get Hit With $10 Million Trade Secret Theft Verdict

Posted on July 19, 2010
The San Francisco Business Times is reporting that FusionStorm and three of Technology Integration Group's former employees (and new FusionStorm employees) were hit by a $10 million jury verdict and judgment, $9.36 million of which was for compensatory damages...

$59 Million Trade Secret Default Judgment Vacated in Florida

Posted on July 16, 2010
Florida is for vacations - and a Florida Court of Appeals just vacated a whopper of a trade secrets judgment amounting to $59 million.Seems Alpha Mining Systems filed suit against its former employee, Sam Vance, for stealing their trade secrets and providing it to competitors in China and the United Arab Emirates...

Trade Secret Theft Conviction: The Post-Script

Posted on July 14, 2010
This is a rarity for our blog - a story regarding, and interview with, a convicted trade secret thief AFTER his conviction.The Epoch Times has published this very interesting piece regarding Meng Hong, a former employee of DuPont convicted of economic espionage...

Foxconn Tells Hong Kong Judge BYD's Claims Are Meritless

Posted on July 13, 2010
BusinessWeek is reporting that Foxconn International Holdings Ltd. urged a Hong Kong judge to throw out a lawsuit filed by BYD Co., China?s largest maker of rechargeable batteries, that accuses Foxconn of unlawful interference with its business, defamation and conspiracy to injure...

Was Hulu Stolen from Hula?

Posted on July 12, 2010
The Los Angelese Times is reporting that a Los Angeles County judge on Thursday referred to arbitration the case of a Canadian engineer who contends that NBC Universal stole his idea and business strategy to launch Hulu, the website that shows TV programs and movies...

Cache Says "Not!!!" To Chico's Trade Secret Suit

Posted on July 08, 2010
The internet has incentivized companies to stay on top of the news cycle. Apparently concerned that investors will consider the recent trade secret suit filed against it by Chico's to be bad news for the stock, Cache strongly rebutted the allegations of Chico's that it hired two Chico's employees and utilized the stolen trade secrets allegedly misappropriated by those employees...

Ohio Federal Jury Awards Allied Erecting Over $3 Million in Trade Secrets Verdict

Posted on July 07, 2010
The Youngstown Business Daily Journal is reporting that a federal jury has given Allied Erecting a $3.046 million verdict in a contested trade secret theft case. The verdict brings an end to a more than four-year legal battle in U.S. District Court between Allied Erecting and defendants Mark Ramun, son of Allied's president John Ramun, and Genesis Equipment & Manufacturing Inc...

Womble Trade Secrets Wishes You Happy Independence Day

Posted on July 02, 2010
Those who won our independence believed liberty to be the secret of happiness and courage to be the secret of liberty. ~Louis D. Brandeis

Trade Secrets of Women's Clothing Designs -

Posted on July 01, 2010
From Naples, Florida - not normally a hot-bed of trade secret activity: the Naples News is reporting that Chico's FAS Inc. has sued two former employees for allegedly stealing the trade secrets of certain Chico's clothing designs and sharing them with their new employer, Cache...

Feds to Retry Defendants in Silicon Valley Economic Espionage Case

Posted on June 30, 2010
We've blogged about this case before (http://wombletradesecrets.blogspot.com/2009/10/defense-in-silicon-valley-economic.html) - the one where a defendant's wife reported him to the authorities for allegedly stealing NetLogic's secrets to benefit himself and possibly the People's Republic of China...

Discovery Sanctions Against Eaton Aerospace Upheld in Never Ending Trade Secrets Case

Posted on June 29, 2010
ClarionLedger.com is reporting that Eaton Aerospace has failed to convince the Mississippi Supreme Court to overturn the $1.5 million sanction issued against it and its attorneys for discovery abuses.We've covered this case extensively, for example: http://wombletradesecrets...

Big Fracking Fight: The Trade Secrets of Hydraulic Fracturing of Rock to Obtain Natural Gas

Posted on June 22, 2010
Seems to be a lot of talk about natural gas as an energy substitute for crude oil these days. We at the Womble Trade Secrets Blog had no idea how one captures natural gas. Do you drill a well? Well, no you don't. You frack for it. Fracking is another name for hydraulic fracturing of the shale formations that hold the gas...

Hilton's Motion to Dismiss Starwood's Federal Trade Secrets and Computer Theft Case Denied

Posted on June 18, 2010
The news wires are abuzz with reports that Hilton's motion to dismiss filed 26 February 2010 has been denied. U.S. District Court Judge Stephen C. Robinson said there was plausible reason to continue the legal action, instead of submitting it to arbitration, and he also concluded there was federal question jurisdiction under the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act...

Todd Sullivan Talks Trade Secrets with LA Times

Posted on June 08, 2010
RALEIGH, N.C.?Womble Carlyle attorney Todd Sullivan discussed trade secrets in the hotel industry in a major new article in the Los Angeles Times. The article, ?Hotel Wars: Drama and Intrigue Behind the Hospitality Trade? ran in the Sunday, June 6th edition of the newspaper...

Naples, Florida Developer Can Withhold Subpoenaed Documents - For Now

Posted on June 08, 2010
Naplesnews.com is on a rare trade secrets case. Luxury, heck all, real estate purchasers in South Florida have had a rough road in the last couple years. Some are fighting mad. Robert Housel is apparently fighting mad. He sued the Bonita Bay Group alleging breach of contract, violation of the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act and fraud...

More on the Trade Secrets of Muffins

Posted on June 03, 2010
As we reported earlier here, there?s a battle going on over the trade secrets of muffins and a key inevitable disclosure case in which an executive of the company that manufactures Thomas?s English muffins was barred from going to work for a competitor...

Ohio State's Contract With Coca-Cola Released: Original Trade Secret Redactions Get Unredacted

Posted on June 02, 2010
The Lantern is reporting that The Ohio State University's contract with Coca-Cola have been released after objections made by interested citizens. Payments made to OSU from Coke come from royalty fees and vending commissions on Coke products sold on the university's campus...

$50 Million Connecticut Trade Secrets Award

Posted on June 01, 2010
From the Hartford Courant (a paper I delivered for many years), a report on a massive jury award in a trade secrets case concerning paint. Dur-A-Flex, an East Hartford maker of floor and tile products claimed that a former longtime customer, Laticrete International (also from Connecticut) copied its process for bonding paint to sand in order to make tile grout and started manufacturing an identical product on its own...

Trade Secrets of Bull Semen Sales

Posted on June 01, 2010
A judge in Maine is being asked by a company based in Ithaca, New York to stop a former bull semen salesman from competing against his former company. You can read the story from the Kennebec Journal by clicking on the title of this post.This appears to be more of a noncompete than trade secret matter but we were intrigued by the story, nonetheless...

Where Trade Secrecy Meets Environmental Risk: Determining Whether to Use Certain Oil Dispersants in the Gulf

Posted on May 28, 2010
Andrew Schneider of aol.news has written an interesting piece regarding the potential use of a certain oil dispersant in the Gulf of Mexico. He reports that scientists in the U.S., Canada, South America and elsewhere have pleaded with the government not to approve one option for dealing with the massive oil spill: a dispersant that contains unidentified and possibly untested nanoparticles...

Rare Economic Espionage Act Prosecution Fails in California

Posted on May 26, 2010
Well, we'd already told you that Economic Espionage Act prosecutions were rare: http://wombletradesecrets.blogspot.com/2009/10/we-first-blogged-about-this-economic.html. It certainly won't help future prosecutions that these claims have been thrown out by the federal judge and all that is left is a potential re-trial on theft of trade secrets grounds...

Trade Secrets of Oil Spill Remediation?

Posted on May 24, 2010
Are the particularized explanations a private company provides to a government agency as to why they are using certain remedial measures to fix a problem possibly a trade secret?There are numerous reports (see, e.g., http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/obama-running-out-of-patience-as-bp-misses-oil-slick-deadlines-1981133...

Unreleased Video Game Trade Secrets Allegedly Downloaded by Geek at Video Game Expo: Criminal Charges Brought in Boston

Posted on May 20, 2010
Okay - you're twenty years old. You attend the "Penny Arcade Expo East" gaming conference in Boston. You're handy with a laptop. You are surrounded by a bunch of young people checking out new video games on display. What do you do? Well, if your name is Justin May, you allegedly use that laptop to hack into the new video game being developed by Destineer Computer Company and you download data onto your drive...

Utah Supreme Court Says Power Generation Plant Trade Secret Case Goes to Trial

Posted on May 19, 2010
The Salt Lake Tribune has published an interesting story regarding the Utah Supreme Court's decision that a trade secret theft claim made by a power plant construction company called USA Power. Seems USA Power approached another company, PacifiCorp, in 2002 with a proposal to build a natural gas based power plant in Utah and then sell the plant to PacifiCorp upon completion...

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