Recent Decisions and Developments – Trade Secrets Institute

Decision Date: April 19, 2017 | Court Name: County of Santa Clara, Superior Court of the State of California

Tesla Settles Trade Secrets Lawsuit with Ex-Chief of Autopilot Program

Commentary

Commentary

Potential Trade Secrets Troll in West Virgnia

By glenn.schieck

A few weeks ago we introduced the idea of the trade secrets troll, loosely defined as a company or individual that invokes trade secret protection to avoid public disclosure of unfavorable information, while claiming that such protection is needed to protect the information from competitors. A recent news story suggests that every day may bring a new trade secrets troll, the latest in West Virginia. The left-leaning political blog Wonkette summed up the story well with its headline, “Freedom Industries… Read more…

Trade Secrets Trolls

By alexander.goldman

by Glenn Schieck, Alexander Goldman, and Tom Bengera Summary: We have identified several cases in which trade secrets law is being invoked for no competitive purpose. It is being used to protect information that, if known, would lower the value of the product to consumers. In light of this trend, it may be time to reexamine the requirements of what constitutes a trade secret worthy of judicial protection. If trade secret trolls can use the protection of this law not… Read more…

U.S. v. China: When Sovereign Sues Sovereign

By alexander.goldman

by Alexander Goldman In a case that may just be the first of many, the United States filed charges against five men who are accused of conducting cyber espionage attacks for the government of China against targets in the United States. Wang Dong, Sun Kailiang, Wen Xinyu, Huang Zhenyu, and Gu Chunhui have been indicted by a federal grand jury in Pennsylvania on 31 counts of espionage for activities over the nine years from 2006 to 2014 (inclusive). The defendants… Read more…

Brooklyn Law School Trade Secrets Symposium

By paul.fraulo

Part 1: Proposed Federal Trade Secrets Law by Alexander Goldman '14 Congress is considering a Federal trade secrets law to solve a very specific problem: the possibility that an employee of a U.S. company will be at an airport with a thumb drive full of trade secrets before the company can act. This first session of the Trade Secrets Symposium at Brooklyn Law School was moderated by Trade Secrets Fellow Paul Fraulo '15. Ted Schroeder, Chief Counselor to U.S. Senator… Read more…

Rethinking Patents vs. Secrecy

By paul.fraulo

by Paul Fraulo Recently there have been many articles discussing the choice between protecting technology as a trade secret as opposed to seeking a patent. While patent law arguably provides stronger protection for an invention, one of the major advantages of protecting technology as a Trade Secret is that it does not have to meet the strict requirements of patentability that companies face in the patent process, such as novelty and non-obviousness. Recently though, the patent process has become even… Read more…

J. Crew Complaint Illustrates Issues with Litigating Misappropriation Cases Under New York Law

By robert.levine

By Robert A. Levine, '13 In a recently filed case, the popular clothing brand J. Crew Group, Inc, accused an ex-designer of stealing confidential information his new job at Bonobos, a competing clothing line. J. Crew claims its “confidential and proprietary information [includes] product designs, . . . productions schedules, manufacturing resources, and other information concerning [its] business operations,” such as budgets and marketing strategies. At first glance, this would appear to be a typical case of an employee leaving… Read more…

Is there a “Secret” to Success in Reality TV Formatting?

By robert.levine

By Robert A. Levine, '13 When one network attempts to rip-off another network’s program, the aggrieved party may turn to its legal counsel to see if there are any claims against the perceived “copycat” show and its producers. While a written expression of ideas such as scripts are copyrightable intellectual property, see 17 U.S.C. § 101 (2010), some entertainment industry executives and lawyers argue there is a “gap” in protection in regards to “entertainment formats,” and specifically in the context… Read more…

Trends in Trade Secret Enforcement

By lillian.tan

By Lillian Tan ’12 Trade secret protection, normally left to the jurisdiction of states, has become a growing concern of the federal government. Over the last several months, the federal government’s prosecution of trade secrets theft under the Economic Espionage Act (“EEA) (18 U.S.C. §1831 et. seq.) spiked, and it has found other means of enforcement such as Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (“CFAA”) (18 U.S.C. §1030 et seq.) and even Section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19… Read more…