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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

Legal Reporter Explains the Lockheed Trade Secret Post-Trial Situation: Excellent Analysis

Posted on May 18, 2010
We first blogged about the extraordinary remedy taken in the $37 million trade secret verdict obtained by Lockheed Martin here: http://wombletradesecrets.blogspot.com/2010/04/lockheed-martins-37-million-trade.html. A new trial was ordered in light of significant discovery and disclosure abuses...

Hog-Stunning Trade Secrets

Posted on May 13, 2010
A scary trade secrets story from the Austin version of the Rochester (MN) Post-Bulletin.It seems that in September 2008, Hormel Foods Corp. entered into an agreement with a New Hampshire company, Ferrite Co., to develop a hog-stunning system. Hormel claims it paid a deposit and also provided Ferrite with various proprietary and confidential materials consisting of trade secrets...

Mesirow Financial Wins $1.9 Million FINRA Award from Former Employees and New Company

Posted on May 12, 2010
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that two financial advisers have been ordered to pay nearly $1.9 million to the advisers' former employer, Chicago-based Mesirow Financial Holdings, Inc., and two of its divisions that alleged breach of contract and theft of trade secrets...

Trade Secrets on Copy Machine Hard Drives?

Posted on May 10, 2010
From CBS News via BigGeekDaddy.com, a video report that suggests that most digital copy machines created since 2002 contain hard drives which, in turn, could contain thousands of images representing every copy made on the machine.When returning or disposing the machine, those hard drives should be destroyed or wiped clean or their users run the risk of having their proprietary confidential information floating around in the world...

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Ipreo Sues Goldman Sachs For Alleged Trade Secret Theft

Posted on May 10, 2010
Business Week is reporting that Ipreo Holdings LLC, a New York-based provider of software and market intelligence services for investment banking and corporate clients, has filed a lawsuit against financial giant Goldman Sachs alleging copyright infringement and theft of trade secrets...

Talent Agency Claims Trade Secrets of Representing Celebrities Stolen

Posted on May 07, 2010
Matthew Futterman has written an interesting piece in The Wall Street Journal regarding a departed talent agent and we've copied the relevant portions below: "Hollywood agency CAA has raided rival IMG Worldwide of agents and top executives, rising to challenge IMG's primacy in sports...

iPhone Trade Secrets Matter Sheds Light on Investigative Resource

Posted on May 06, 2010
Interesting piece linked above in the Silicon Valley Mercury News regarding the REACT outfit in California:The Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team operated out of publicity's glare until last month, when armed with a search warrant, its investigators broke into the Fremont home of a blogger-editor for the website Gizmodo...

Fed Wants En Banc Ruling on Bailout Disclosure Decision

Posted on May 05, 2010
BloombergBusinessWeek is reporting that the Federal Reserve Board asked an appeals court to reconsider a ruling requiring the agency to disclose documents identifying financial firms that might have collapsed without the largest U.S. government bailout ever...

Swoosh! Oregon Attorney General Orders University of Oregon to Disclose Terms of Deal with Nike

Posted on May 04, 2010
Rachel Bachmann of The Oregonian has just detailed the back-and-forth nature of the University of Oregon's protestation that its deal with Nike was a trade secret.She explains: "The university initially argued that financial figures of its Nike deal were "trade secrets" and thus exempt from disclosure under Oregon's open-records law -- an argument supported by a ruling from the office of former attorney general Hardy Myers...

Citigroup Sues Former Executive, now with Deutsche Bank, in Singapore

Posted on May 03, 2010
BusinessWeek is reporting that Citigroup has sued its former executive-level employee, Gautam Hazarika, for allegedly transferring Citigroup's trade secrets to his new employer, Deutsche Bank AG, before joining the latter firm.Citigroup?s suit comes after Merrill Lynch & Co...

San Jose Business Journal: "Trade Secret Theft By Rogue Employees On the Rise"

Posted on April 30, 2010
This from today's San Jose Business Journal: "Silicon Valley lawyers who specialize in this area of law say trade secret cases are on the rise. The improved economy, they say, has led to more people switching jobs ? and more people getting accused of stealing valuable, confidential information from their old offices...

$25 Million Jury Verdict in Texas Drill Bit Secrets Case

Posted on April 28, 2010
We start here with what the defendant said after the verdict:?Varel wishes to express its sincere regret and apology to Baker Hughes for its use of a Baker Hughes roller-cone layout in 2004,?? Varel said in a statement issued after the verdict was reached...

China Offers Guidance, Sort Of, About What Trade Secrets are Under Chinese Law

Posted on April 27, 2010
From The Australian, home country paper for the Rio Tinto executives who were convicted of stealing trade secrets in China, a story concerning China providing, apparently for the first time, a definition of what a trade secret actually is.The Chinese state-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission issued what the paper said were ?wide-ranging and vague? definitions that ?may have done little to clarify matters...

Interesting Piece on the Trade Secrets of Sports: Fans Want to Know How The Winners Win

Posted on April 26, 2010
Ryan Thies has an interesting thesis: NASCAR is governed by such secrecy the fans don't really know why their favorite driver is so successful or so unsuccessful. Here's the key arguments in his piece: "NASCAR more than any other sport is shrouded in secrecy...

Law Firm Convinces Court of Appeals to Reverse Sanctions For Bad Faith Trade Secrets Filing

Posted on April 23, 2010
Courthouse News Service is reporting that Meisenheimer Herron & Steele won its appeal of massive sanctions against the firm for allegedly bringing a meritless trade secrets action. The firm represented BDT Products in a lawsuit accusing Lexmark, BDT's former partner, of swiping BDT's trade secrets for a printer tray...

High Frequency Trader Accused of Stealing Societe Generale's Trade Secrets

Posted on April 21, 2010
Courthouse News Service is reporting that a former trader with Societe Generale was arrested and charged with stealing the code from the bank's high-frequency trading program.Samarth Agrawal worked with the high-frequency trade group, which uses a multimillion-dollar computer system to perform sophisticated securities trading within milliseconds...

Criminal Theft of Eaton Aerospace Trade Secrets Charges Stand - No Dismissal

Posted on April 19, 2010
The Clarion-Ledger is reporting that a federal judge has refused to dismiss two pending criminal charges five former Eaton Aerospace engineers are facing after they were victorious in getting others thrown out."All motions to dismiss were denied," said Assistant U...

Philippines Tax Authority Wants to Publish Names of Biggest Taxpayers - But Their Tax Code Declares Identities a Trade Secret

Posted on April 15, 2010
Interesting issue out of the Philippines. Leonard Vinz O. Ignacio has authored a piece noting that their Bureau of Internal Revenue has decided to publish, in honor, the names of the country's biggest taxpayers "to serve as a model for others to emulate and follow...

Rep. Issa Accuses National Highway Transportation Safety Administration of Playing Politics With Documents

Posted on April 14, 2010
POLITICO is reporting that Representative Darrell Issa is agitated the NHTSA is refusing to turn certain Toyota documents over to Republicans even though they've been provided to Democrats. According to the report, NHTSA won't turn them over to the Republicans on grounds that they contain trade secrets and, as such, "are only available to committee chairmen...

Customer Lists as Trade Secrets? Not A Per Se Rule

Posted on April 13, 2010
The Association of Corporate Counsel's website is an excellent resource for in-house and other attorneys. Today, they posted a question and answer exchange with a respected attorney from the Dorsey & Whitney firm - Roy Ginsburg.We think Mr. Ginsburg has his analysis exactly right - there are generally not per se rulings that establish a customer list is, or is not, a trade secret under applicable state law...

San Francisco Chronicle Op-Ed: Data Espionage A Major Issue Facing U.S.

Posted on April 08, 2010
This was an interesting op-ed piece published in the San Francisco Chronicle yesterday. We're glad this discussion is underway:"The company's disclosure in January that it was attacked by China-based hackers -- and its subsequent decision to scale back operations there -- have stoked long-standing fears over the ability of cyber adversaries to penetrate commercial and government networks in the U...

Forrester Report on Corporate Secrets: Too Much For Compliance, Not Enough For Security

Posted on April 07, 2010
Forrester Research, Inc. in Cambridge, Massachussetts has published a report on corporate secrets in Western economies and it identifies some interesting conclusions, identified below: (1) Secrets comprise two-thirds of the value of firms? information portfolios...

Lockheed Martin's $37 Million Trade Secrets Verdict Against L-3 Communications Tossed: New Trial Ordered Based on Allegedly Withheld Evidence

Posted on April 06, 2010
We first reported this massive misappropriation of trade secrets verdict here: http://wombletradesecrets.blogspot.com/2009/05/lockheed-martin-wins-3728-million-trade.html. Law.com is reporting that a federal judge has tossed out a $37.3 million trade secrets verdict for Lockheed Martin Corp...

Australians Complain: Chinese Law of Trade Secrets Undefined

Posted on April 02, 2010
The Australian has published an interesting piece focusing on the claim of "theft of commercial secrets" in the Rio Tinto criminal prosecutions and convictions. We thought you'd like to see it - you can click on the title to this post or read the most interesting portions copied below: "In an extraordinary twist, it now appears the men were originally picked up solely on charges of stealing state secrets -- and this was why the State Security Bureau, or secret police, was involved...

Federal Judge: "A Certain Absurdity Exists in Requiring . . . Trade Secrets to Be Unsealed . . . in a Theft of Trade Secrets Trial"

Posted on March 31, 2010
Another first here at the Womble Trade Secrets blog - we're linking you to a story from Tire Review, an industry source for news and analysis about, well, tires.They're reporting that a federal judge in Knoxville, Tennessee has ruled that pictures at the center of industrial espionage case linking Wyko and Goodyear must be viewed ?in camera? to protect the interests of those involved...

Australian Prime Minister Says Chinese "Commercial Secrets" Prosecution Left "Serious Unanswered Questions"

Posted on March 30, 2010
The Sydney Morning Herald is reporting that Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is complaining about China's procedurally secret criminal trial relating to the alleged "commercial secrets" purportedly stolen by an Australian businessman. By holding part of an Australian businessman's criminal trial in secret, China has missed an opportunity to prove itself on the world stage, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says...

Details of Rio Tinto Bribery Prosecution Released - Commercial Secrets Verdict Unreleased

Posted on March 26, 2010
We've been interested in the Chinese government's prosecution of Rio Tinto employees primarily because it involved an allegation the employees stole Chinese commercial secrets, presumably secrets regarding how much it had committed to pay for iron ore...

Hu's On First: Three-Day Rio Tinto Criminal Prosecution Concludes - Four Plead Guilty to Accepting Bribes, Verdict Pending

Posted on March 24, 2010
The New York Times is reporting that the three-day trial of four employees of the British-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto ended here Wednesday afternoon, but there was no verdict on charges that the group had accepted millions of dollars in bribes from Chinese steel companies and had stolen commercial secrets...

O'Melveny's David Almeling and Colleagues Publish New Article Analyzing Federal Trade Secret Litigation

Posted on March 24, 2010
There is an attorney at the esteemed O'Melveny & Myers law firm in San Francisco who is a friend of this blog. His name is David Almeling and you can find his impressive bio linked here: http://www.omm.com/davidalmeling/. We like this guy. We first started communicating with Mr...

Blockbuster Admission in Trial of Rio Tinto Employees in China: "I Took Bribes"

Posted on March 22, 2010
We've covered this Chinese prosecution of existing Rio Tinto executive employees repeatedly: http://wombletradesecrets.blogspot.com/2010/03/chinese-trial-involving-rio-tinto-execs.html. You'll recall that China arrested four Rio Tinto employees almost nine months ago, charging them with bribery and theft of China's commercial trade secrets...

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