Who owns it?
By Robert K. Fergan, Esq. In the world of intellectual property, the question of who owns the rights to newly developed technology or ideas is complicated and often counter-intuitive. Consider the...
View ArticleTrade Secrets — Noerr-Pennington Doctrine — Sham Lawsuits
The plaintiff sued its former employee for theft of trade secrets. The employee countered, claiming the lawsuit was a sham lawsuit outside of the Noerr-Pennington doctrine. He also argued the claim was...
View ArticleSocial media and the workplace: Beware of disclosure of trade secret and...
Social media — from blogs to Facebook to Twitter — is omnipresent and often takes place at work or is about work. While this may result in employer-client concerns about productivity, harassment, and...
View ArticleAppeals – Mootness — Trade secrets
Where a U.S. District Court judge entered a preliminary injunction preventing the defendants from using the plaintiff’s trade secrets and from contacting certain customers for a six-month period, the...
View ArticleEmployment — Non-compete agreement – Trade secrets
Where a judge granted a plaintiff employer a preliminary injunction against a former employee who had accepted a position with one of the plaintiff’s competitors, the judge’s order should be upheld, as...
View ArticleClosing a business deal remotely? Know the risks
The onset of the pandemic has created rapid change in business practices. Accompanying this has been a variety of new business ventures as companies and individuals seek ways to bring innovations to...
View ArticleTeleconferencing software can put your trade secrets at risk
In general, courts do not require a company to expend great and expansive efforts to keep a trade secret confidential. That being said, if a court finds that a company has made no efforts to maintain...
View ArticleStealing wind
The tale of the unauthorized sale of sails launched more than 20 years ago, when Quantum, a sailmaker company that conducts business out of Traverse City, started its relationship with Jannie Reuvers...
View ArticleDismissal of trade secrets case premature
An industrial equipment company that was kicked out of federal court for untimely filing a trade secrets claim will get another chance now that the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has sent the case...
View ArticleProtecting trade secrets in the evolving workplace
White-collar workers are switching jobs, working remotely and holding down multiple gigs, and this can put trade secrets at risk. A solid trade secret protection program will promote a workplace...
View ArticleJury finds for plaintiffs after contentious seven-year battle
The plaintiffs Versata Software, Inc., f/k/a Trilogy Software, Inc., Versata Development Group, Inc. and Trilogy, Inc. (collectively, “Versata”) sued Ford Motor Company in 2015, alleging the car...
View ArticleContract — Trade secrets – Conspiracy
Where a plaintiff has sued a number of defendants for violation of trade-secret statutes, breach of contract, common law and statutory conversion, trade disparagement, tortious interference and...
View ArticleCommercial — Trade secrets – Kentucky law
Where a jury held a defendant liable in the amount of $7 million under the Kentucky Uniform Trade Secrets Act, that verdict should be upheld based on evidence that the defendant lured away the...
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