Intellectual Property Law

Guilty Plea in Metaldyne Trade Secrets Theft

Posted on September 16, 2008
From the Associated Press via the Chicago Tribune, a story concerning three ex-employees of auto parts maker, Metaldyne, who entered a guilty plea for stealing trade secrets for . . . the Chinese.The pleas were entered Monday, September 15, by Anne Lockwood; her husband, Michael Haehnel, both of Rockford, Illinois; and Fuping Liu, of Flushing, N...

Ex-Intel Employee Accused of Misappropriating Intel Trade Secrets

Posted on September 15, 2008
In a criminal complaint unsealed Tuesday, the FBI alleged that Biswahoman Pani of Worcester copied a host of confidential Intel documents, including 13 "top secret" company files containing highly sensitive design plans for future processor chips. In the complaint, filed in late August in US District Court in Boston, FBI Special Agent Timothy Russell of the bureau's Boston computer crime squad said in an affidavit that more than 100 pages of sensitive Intel documents, as well as 19 computer-aided-design drawings, were found in a search of Pani's house conducted on July 1...

Motorola Sues RIM for Employee Piracy and Trade Secrets Threats

Posted on September 10, 2008
Motorola is suing rival handset manufacturer Research in Motion after it claimed that company has been poaching its staff. The lawsuit, filed last week, says that RIM lured away some 40 of its employees in Florida since the beginning of this year.In the paperwork, Motorola says that RIM is violating a non-solicitation contract the two companies signed when Motorola announced plans to spin off its handset business as a separate company...

Massachusetts Jury Says Former Employee and New Employer Did Not Steal STR Holdings' Trade Secrets for Solar Modules

Posted on September 08, 2008
A solar supply company based in Connecticut that plans a $300 million initial public offering lost an intellectual property case in a Massachusetts court last week, raising new questions about its vulnerability to competitors that seek to use its technology...

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Nobel Biocare Receives $2 Million Settlement from Keystone Dental

Posted on September 05, 2008
Swiss-based Nobel Biocare has settled an unfair competition and trade secrets misappropriation lawsuit against U.S. competitor Keystone Dental and will get $2 million as well as certain guarantees regarding proprietary material."The settlement terms provide for Keystone Dental to pay $2 million to Nobel Biocare and that Keystone Dental not hire or solicit any current Nobel Biocare employee through February 1, 2009," the world's largest maker of dental implants said in a statement...

$57.5 Million Trade Secrets (Default) Judgment in North Carolina

Posted on September 03, 2008
From the Raleigh News & Observer, and right in our backyard, news that a North Carolina judge has granted Durham bio-pharmaceutical company, Serenex, a $57.5 million default judgment against Chinese businesses for corporate espionage and stolen trade secrets...

Reverse Engineering Software

Posted on September 03, 2008
From develop, a website for European game developers, a short but thoughtful article concerning the right to engage in reverse engineering and the associated perils of outsourcing.It's in the context of games, but applies more generally to any sort of software code.

Lawyers and Competitive Intelligence

Posted on September 02, 2008
Although it doesn't address trade secrets directly, the National Law Journal has an interesting article on gathering competitive intelligence and how legal ethics might impede wide-open intelligence gathering by lawyers.The article raises interesting questions:"Experts agree it is unethical to misrepresent one's status or position to obtain information...

Kate Hudson Sued for Allegedly Misappropriating the Formula for Taming Flyaway Hair

Posted on August 26, 2008
That's right - this is WombleTradeSecrets' first foray into alleged trade secret theft by a Hollywood celebrity. The complaint is attached in the link above.A U.S. hair products laboratory says actress Kate Hudson and her partner, celebrity stylist David Babaii, misappropriated its formula for taming flyaway hair...

Apple iPhone Trade Secrets Cause Buzz in Programming Community

Posted on August 25, 2008
The Los Angeles Times is reporting that the software development kit that Apple Inc. distributed to programmers bound them to not discuss the process of creating programs for the iPhone. Companies typically waive such legal restrictions once the product in question launches, but Apple didn't...

$60 Million Trade Secrets Verdict Announced in Utah

Posted on August 20, 2008
The Salt Lake Tribune is reporting that American National Insurance Co. will challenge a $60 million verdict awarded by a Utah jury this month to a rival company in a suit over the defection of agents.James Pozzi, senior executive vice president with the Galveston, Texas-based company, said the punitive damages verdict - which was based on a claim that American National poached Farm Bureau Insurance Co...

Chemical Biggies in Trade Secrets Spat

Posted on August 18, 2008
Dow Jones, via CNN.money, reports on a trade secrets actions in federal court in the Southern District of New York between Koch Industries subsidiary, Invista, and DuPont and Rhodia. The claims relate to alleged theft of Invista's trade secrets concerning proprietary technology for the production of adiponitrile, a chemical used in the manufacture of nylon...

IDX Media Claims Former Executive Stole Their Trade Secrets

Posted on August 14, 2008
A California company that supplies data application systems to real estate agents is suing a former executive for violating trade secrets.IDX Media LLC of Sebastopol, Calif., claims its former vice president for product development, Daniel Evans of Belleville, solicited multiple clients to end their work with IDX and switch to a new company Evans planned to form...

Another Public/Private Hybrid Trade Secrets Issue

Posted on August 13, 2008
Duke Energy has been sued by a former employee who apparently claims that he was terminated for making an issue about the legality of payments made by Duke Energy to large customers. Duke Energy is now arguing that the legality or illegality of those payments is a matter for the Ohio Supreme Court to consider...

Chinese Economic Espionage -- The Mistress is Sentenced

Posted on August 06, 2008
From the AP via Google, a follow up to our earlier post here, concerning an economic espionage case against a Chinese national, Yu Xin Kang, convicted of aiding and abetting the earlier-convicted Tai Shen Kuo. She was Kuo's mistress.According to prosecutors in the Northern District of Virginia, between March 2007 and February, Kuo obtained secrets on U...

More Public-Private Trade Secret Disputes - This Time PETA is Involved

Posted on August 01, 2008
The clarionledger.com is reporting the Iams Company's records from seven years of pet food research at Mississippi State University are not public documents, the state Supreme Court has ruled.In 2006, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sued Mississippi State University...

More Public-Private Trade Secret Disputes - This Time in Helena, Montana

Posted on July 31, 2008
The authors of the WombleTradeSecrets (um, that's us) are starting to see more and more disputes of the type we are reporting on in this post - private companies providing information to public entities for some public/private contracting purpose AND THEN the press or consumer advocacy group or environmental group seeks access to that information via statute or law that permits access to the same...

Settlement in Motorola Trade Secrets Case That Had $23 Million Sanction Issued In It

Posted on July 30, 2008
We've blogged about this case before: http://wombletradesecrets.blogspot.com/2007/04/motorola-ordered-to-pay-229-million-in.htmlWell, law.com is reporting that the Ft. Lauderdale, Florida trade secrets case brought by SPS Technologies against Motorola has settled.

Oracle v. SAP Trade Secrets Case Getting Messier

Posted on July 29, 2008
We've blogged this case before: http://wombletradesecrets.blogspot.com/2007/09/oracle-v-sap-trade-secrets-case-could.html#links.The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Oracle is attempting to file an amended complaint that alleges SAP Board members were well aware a company they were acquiring was misappropriating Oracle's trade secrets - but did nothing to stop the practice...

Happy Birthday -- Sort Of -- to the Computer Fraud & Abuse Act

Posted on July 29, 2008
Saturday, July 26, was the 19th Anniversary of the first indictment under the Federal Computer Fraud & Abuse Act, passed earlier in 1986. Robert T. Morris a Harvard graduate and a graduate student at Cornell, developed the first widely spread Internet virus, and the first worm virus...

Honeywell Sues Akebono and Two Former Employees for Trade Secrets Theft

Posted on July 28, 2008
On July 24, 2008, Honeywell International sued Akebono Corporation, Akebono Brake Industry Co., Ltd. and Sunil Kesavan and Ximming Shao for misappropriating trade secrets that relate to the making of fiction materials for automotive brake pads.Honeywell claims that a secret process one of its employees designed for the making of automative brake pad materials has been maintained as a trade secret from 1996 until the present...

Motorola Sues Former Executive Now With Apple's iPhone Team

Posted on July 22, 2008
This is a story that may be misreported as a theft of trade secrets case when, instead, it appears to be a breach of noncompete agreement and inevitable disclosure case. That being said, Crain's Chicago Business is reporting that a former Motorola executive employee, Michael Fenger, has been sued by that company for leaving and going to work with Apple and its iPhone team...

Taiwanese Company Complains "Ancient Chinese Secret, Huh?"

Posted on July 16, 2008
Forbes.com is reporting that giant electronics manufacturer Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. recently took out half-page ads in major Taiwanese newspapers to complain about delays in a Chinese court over the prosecution of a Chinese competitor for allegedly stealing its commercial secrets...

Healthcare Contract Data Subject of Georgia Trade Secrets Litigation

Posted on July 14, 2008
dailyreportonline.com is reporting that an open records battle between the state's doctors and a major health insurance company will continue because a decision in the case by the Georgia Court of Appeals has left neither side satisfied.A panel of the appellate court ruled on July 3 that doctors were entitled to see certain documents related to United HealthCare's administration of the state's employee benefits plan because they are public records generally covered by the state open records law...

Former IBM VP Sentenced in Trade Secrets Theft Case

Posted on July 14, 2008
From InfoWorld, an continuing in our parade of trade secrets sentences, Atul Malhotra, 42, of Santa Barbara, a former vice president of imaging and printing services at Hewlett-Packard has pleaded guilty to stealing trade secrets from IBM.Malhotra was charged on June 27 with one count of theft of trade secrets, and he pleaded guilty on July 11 (a pretty quick turnaround as these things go)...

Sentencing in Chinese Espionage Case

Posted on July 13, 2008
From the Associated Press, via Chron.com, a story concerning a former Pentagon analyst, Gregg W. Bergersen, 51, of Alexandria, Virginia, who was sentenced Friday to almost five years in prison for giving secret information about U.S.-Taiwan military relations to a New Orleans furniture salesman who turned out to be a Chinese spy...

Brother vs. Brothers Trade Secrets Dispute

Posted on July 11, 2008
From the Herald Bulletin of Anderson, Indiana, a story about a bitter dispute over trade secrets pitting brother against brothers.According to the story, Indianapolis-based Darlington Farms and owner Phil Hockemeyer filed a lawsuit against Rubicon Foods LLC, a company founded by Hockemeyer?s younger brothers, Steve and Todd...

Trade Secret Issues Become Paramount in Viacom-YouTube Litigation

Posted on July 08, 2008
Viacom has sued YouTube for major-league copyright infringement, alleging that YouTube does not take sufficient means to insure that copyrighted material doesn't make its way onto YouTube. In order to prove its allegations, Viacom requested that the court give it access to YouTube's software source code to demonstrate that it does not utilize sufficient screens and filters to separate copyrighted material out from the non-copyrighted material...

Former HP Exec Says to FBI "Okay, I Did It" in Criminal Trade Secrets Theft Matter

Posted on July 02, 2008
The Silicon Valley edition of The Mercury News is reporting that a former Hewlett-Packard executive has agreed not to contest federal charges that he stole trade secrets from his previous employer, IBM, and attempted to pass the information to colleagues at HP...

Trade Secrets of the Detroit Red Wings

Posted on June 30, 2008
The co-authors of this blog like hockey. One of the co-authors (me) grew up in Detroit. It is a slow day in the trade secrets blog world so here's a post related to the proclaimed secrets of assembling a Stanley Cup champion team, direct from GM Ken Holland's mouth:1...

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