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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

Federal Judge Closes Federal Courtroom in MPAA/RealNetworks Matter

Posted on April 27, 2009
A federal judge sealed a courtroom last week after attorneys for the Motion Picture Association of America and another Hollywood group claimed that confidential information might be disclosed during testimony about DVD-encryption technology.U.S. District Judge Marilyn Patel kicked the public out of the courtroom at around 2:30 p...

ClearOne Clears $9.7 Million in Trade Secrets Damages

Posted on April 23, 2009
We've been covering this matter for a while: http://wombletradesecrets.blogspot.com/2009/02/clearone-obtains-expanded-trade-secrets.html.A federal court in Utah has issued a Memorandum Decision and Order yesterday in favor of ClearOne Communications, Inc...

$36 Million Verdict in California Trade Secrets Case

Posted on April 22, 2009
From Law.com, a story concerning a $36 million trade secrets verdict in favor of Hansen Medical against Luna Innovations after a three-week trial in San Jose, California.The jury found that Luna broke an agreement it had to help Hansen develop a robotic catheter and misused trade secrets to land a lucrative contract with a Hansen competitor, Intuitive Surgical Inc...

The Trade Secrets of Luxury Hotel Concept Allegedly Stolen: Starwood Hotels v. Hilton Hotels

Posted on April 17, 2009
Hilton Hotels was sued by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc., the third-largest U.S. lodging company, over claims it stole trade secrets to improve its luxury brands.The complaint, filed in federal court in New York, claims two former Starwood executives hired by Hilton stole information about Starwood?s W hotel brand to develop Hilton?s Denizen hotels...

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Fourth Circuit Holds That Investigatory And Remedial Expenses May Be Recovered As "Economic Damages" In Computer Fraud and Abuse Act Cases

Posted on April 17, 2009
From our sister blog, the North Carolina Appellate Blog, a story about a new Fourth Circuit case permitting investigatory and remedial expenses as ?economic damages? in cases under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. The case A.V. v. iParadigms, LLC held that a claimant bringing a civil action under the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), 18 U...

Game Maker Activision Sued Over "DJ Hero" Video Game

Posted on April 15, 2009
A pair of indie gaming companies may have tossed a wrench into Activision?s plans to piggyback on the success of its Guitar Hero franchise with the upcoming "DJ Hero" game. Genius Products and Numark Industries, the two companies behind the as-yet-released "Scratch: The Ultimate DJ" game, have filed a lawsuit in California against Activision and developer 7 Studios for ?intentional interference with contract, breach of contract, conversion and misappropriation of trade secrets...

Rutgers' Ticketmaster Payments Trade Secrets?

Posted on April 14, 2009
One of the fundamental qualities of a trade secret is that it is competitively sensitive - that the owner or holder of the trade secret enjoys a competitive advantage because it knows the trade secret but its competitors don't. But - who are the competitors of a state institution like Rutgers University? See story below: New Jersey officials will not say how much money state entities rake in from fees Ticketmaster charges sports fans and concertgoers...

FBI Investigator Calls Trade Secret Theft Involving Chinese National "An Act of Economic Violence"

Posted on April 13, 2009
The rhetoric is heating up in the U.S. v. China battle over the protection of trade secrets and other intellectual property.A Chinese national living in the United States has been accused of stealing a software program from his former U.S. employer and selling a modified version to the Chinese government after being fired...

Reasonable Efforts to Maintain Secrecy ? Learning from the Bad Experiences of the Brits

Posted on April 13, 2009
Virtually every trade secrets statute in the U.S. requires the owner of a trade secret to take ?efforts that are reasonable under the circumstances to maintain its secrecy.?Yet there?s not a lot of guidance about what that means or what is required. Well, we now have a good answer for what is not a reasonable effort...

Reid Elsevier Sues Hank Asher for Alleged Trade Secret Theft and Noncompete Breach

Posted on April 09, 2009
Reed Elsevier, the Massachusetts-based parent of LexisNexis and Seisint, on Thursday filed a complaint in Palm Beach County Circuit Court, alleging that Asher is violating his non-compete agreement by starting a new company, TLFO, in Boca Raton.In 2004, Asher sold Seisint, his second major database company, to LexisNexis for several hundred million dollars...

Are Standardized Tests Trade Secrets of the School District? So Argues Cincinnati

Posted on April 08, 2009
If a group of Cincinnati school teachers prevails in a case now before the Ohio Supreme Court, enterprising students might be able to ace their tests simply by using the state's public-records law to get a copy of the test before it's given.So contends the Cincinnati Public Schools, which is fighting the teachers' demands for copies of semester exams given to ninth graders...

California Uniform Trade Secrets Act Preempts Other Tort Claims

Posted on April 07, 2009
The link above is to an interesting piece authored by Patrick Premo and Julie Nokleberg of the Fenwick & West law firm. They identify a recently entered California decision holding that the CUTSA preempted plaintiff's state law claims for breach of confidence, interference with contract and unfair competition because they were "based on the same nucleus of facts as the misappropriation of trade secrets claim...

Place in The "This Ain't Good" Folder - Georgia Judge Says "We'll Talk About Incarceration" In Trade Secrets Case

Posted on April 01, 2009
Saying he believed a Gainesville tax preparation company willfully misappropriated trade secrets of H&R Block and ignored a court order not to use them, a judge fined Paramount Tax Services more than $12,000 on January 31st for contempt of court.Paramount Tax Services owner Chris Hardy is expected to appeal the fine, but Judge David Burroughs told him he still expected the money to be paid to H&R Block by Friday...

Former Congressional Investigator Talks About Trade Secret Protections in Congressional Investigations

Posted on March 31, 2009
John Sopko is formerly a counsel to Congressional committees and currently a partner in the Akin Gump law firm. His bio can be found here: http://www.akingump.com/jsopko/. The following exchange from a Metropolitan Corporate Counsel piece captures Mr...

Chicago-Area Valspar Employee Arrested By FBI For Suspected Trade Secret Theft - Chinese Connection

Posted on March 30, 2009
David Yen Lee, 52, was arrested at his home Thursday and ordered held without bail Friday in federal court in Chicago, the FBI said. He faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted of the felony offense. Lee, a naturalized U.S. citizen, worked for Minneapolis-based Valspar Corp...

The Trade Secrets of 9/11: Federal Court Considers Arguments Related to Sealed 9/11 Documents

Posted on March 25, 2009
A Manhattan federal court will hear oral arguments today on whether more than a million pages of documents related to the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks should remain sealed.Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein of the United States District Court in New York City will hear arguments from The New York Times and the Reporters Committee, as well as victims? families and attorneys for the aviation industry defendants...

Senator Grassley Weighs In on FDA Trade Secret Issues

Posted on March 24, 2009
We reported here: http://wombletradesecrets.blogspot.com/2007/03/trade-secrets-and-fda.html about the warning sent out by Acting Commissioner Torti to employees of the FDA regarding their duty to protect certain information the FDA obtains regarding, among other things, private companies' trade secrets...

Trade Secrets and Army Contracts

Posted on March 23, 2009
An interesting story from the Fulton County Daily Report about a case pending in the Northern District of Georgia, Southern Coach v. Dep't of the Army, concerning the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), trade secrets, and the general issue of transparency in government contracting...

New Trade Secrets Movie Starring Julia Roberts

Posted on March 20, 2009
Well sorta. According to film reviewer Steven Rea in the Philadelphia Inquirer, the new movie Duplicity concerns "corporate espionage - the pinching of trade secrets and lucrative new formulae." Rea, it seems, misses the days when espionage in movies meant menacing codes, nuclear weapons, and deadly toxins...

US FDA Deputy Commissioner Warns FDA Employees "No Leaks of Trade Secrets"

Posted on March 20, 2009
U.S. Food and Drug Administration Deputy Commissioner Frank Torti is warning employees against leaking companies' trade secrets, a memo indicates.Commissioner Torti's memo, which was obtained by the In Vivo blog (see here: http://www.windhover.com/pdf/3-13-09_pm_3-52_Torti_Agency-WIde_Email_about_Confidential_Information...

Former Employee of Harland Robertson Co. Indicted for Alleged Trade Secret Theft

Posted on March 19, 2009
A former Brighton, Michigan man was indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury on charges of wire fraud, theft of trade secrets from a Livonia, Michigan company. He was also charged with making false statements to federal investigators.Thomas McKinney, 38, of Spring, Texas, was arrested near Houston by federal agents, said U...

Audio Story on Internet Security Threats

Posted on March 18, 2009
From National Public Radio's On the Media, an audio report concerning the Internet which is turning 40-years-old. The story outlines the cyber-threats to the Web going forward. Among other interesting things, former national security advisor Richard Clarke tells of espionage by both the Russians and Chinese hacking into computers at the Pentagon in recent months...

Boston-Based Telecom Firm Alleges Trade Secret Theft By Employee

Posted on March 18, 2009
Granite Telecommunications filed a complaint in Massachusetts federal court last week against Stephen Levee, a former employee in Granite?s Atlanta office who was fired last month, and Telesource Consulting LLC, a firm that Granite claims was using the information to divert existing and potential customers away from Granite...

XpertUniverse Sues Cisco For Allegedly Stealing Trade Secrets

Posted on March 16, 2009
This just in - XpertUniverse has sued Cisco Systems for allegedly stealing its trade secrets related to XpertUniverse's "Expert on Demand" offerings. A copy of the complaint filed in Delaware federal court is attached above. We'll keep an eye on this one for you...

Sun Microsystems Denied Summary Judgment in Trade Secrets Case

Posted on March 13, 2009
Versata Software accused Sun Microsystems of patent infringement and trade secret misappropriation related to product configuration software. The case is filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. Versata is no stranger to litigation: http://austin...

Are There Risks in Publishing Allegations of Trade Secrets Theft?

Posted on March 12, 2009
If you click on the link above, you'll see that Atrua has published a press release regarding its allegation that one of its competitors, a company called Authentec, has misappropriated Atrua trade secrets on multiple occasions. The press release was apparently made by Atrua's Director of Marketing and is published via a site called "WebWire...

Kansas Jury Awards $17.5 Million Trade Secrets Verdict

Posted on March 11, 2009
A Manhattan, Kansas electronics design and manufacturing company has been awarded nearly $17.5 million in actual and punitive damages in a lawsuit alleging breach of contract, fraud, fraudulent concealment and misappropriation of trade secrets after a deal with a French company to make a propeller deicing system dissolved...

Deutsche Bank Suing Departed Financial Advisor Now Employed with Morgan Stanley - Alleging Trade Secrets Theft

Posted on March 10, 2009
Law360 is reporting that the U.S. investment and securities arm of Germany's Deutsche Bank is suing a former employee it claims stole confidential information and poached two assistants when he took a job with rival Morgan Stanley on Friday.This suit comes close on the heels of a suit filed by Merrill Lynch against Deutsche Bank for poaching 12 senior bankers from Merrill Lynch: http://www...

Johnson & Johnson Subsidiary Sues Bausch & Lomb For "Flagrant Pirating" of Employees and Theft of Trade Secrets

Posted on March 09, 2009
Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Vistakon Pharmaceuticals LLC asked a federal judge Thursday to put an end to Bausch & Lomb Inc.?s ?flagrant pirating? of Vistakon?s sales force, days after filing suit over the alleged wrongdoing.Vistakon urged Judge Timothy J...

Trade Secrets and Tires ? Arrest in Topeka in Economic Espionage Case

Posted on March 09, 2009
From the Kansas City Star, another warning shot concerning economic espionage. The paper reports that two engineers from Wyko Tire Technology Inc. of Greenback, Tennessee, Clark Alan Roberts, 46, and Sean Edward Howley, 38, were arrested on March 6 and charged with conspiring to steal trade secrets from Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co...

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