COLUMBUS, Ohio — A company may rescind the sale of artificial intelligence software that analyzes mergers, acquisitions and other investments after prevailing on a fraudulent inducement claim, a federal judge in Ohio said after declining to certify a question to the Ohio Supreme Court.
CHICAGO — Plaintiffs who allege that a rival used a “well-established Playbook” to conduct an unlawful raid of their facultative reinsurance group asked an Illinois federal court to issue a temporary restraining order (TRO), and the defendants countered that “[t]he only emergency is likely [the plaintiffs’] desire to unlawfully stifle competition.”
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A California federal judge granted a motion to dismiss multiple counterclaims including for violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) brought by a meat substitute maker against a rival company after finding the state law civil counterclaims based on the same basic facts as its claims for misappropriation of trade secrets in violation of the California Uniform Trade Secret Act (CUTSA) and therefore preempted.
DALLAS — An oil and gas company sued a competitor in Texas federal court contending that it was formed when former employees stole trade secrets to establish the company, which led to unjust enrichment and other actions that “crippled” the plaintiff by “unfairly misappropriating the years of time and millions of dollars that [the plaintiff] spent building its investor network and its business.”
Reinsurance broker Guy Carpenter & Company LLC has voluntarily dismissed related suits in Texas and New York federal courts over what it had alleged was a “coordinated raid” that created “a mirror image business.”
MINNEAPOLIS — A trademark infringement and dilution plaintiff’s request for sanctions against a former licensee and his company was granted April 18 by a federal judge in Minnesota, who said the defendants “contumacious, repeated and dilatory conduct” warrants entry of a default judgment.
WACO, Texas — Efforts by TikTok Inc. and others to transfer copyright infringement, trade secret and false advertising claims leveled against them to California federal court failed April 11, when a Texas federal magistrate judge said the defendants failed to show that a different venue would clearly be more convenient.
DENVER — A federal judge in Colorado has partially dismissed a trade secrets lawsuit involving a company that sells chemicals to hydraulic fracturing operators, ruling that there is a factual dispute over whether the information in question is a protected trade secret.
SAN FRANCISCO — A Korean solar panel manufacturer filed suit in California federal court accusing two California-based solar panel companies of violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and defamation, arguing that the court has jurisdiction despite a pending arbitration between the parties in Singapore because it says the California companies “initiated the Arbitration . . . to achieve the conspiratorial goal” of misappropriating its trade secrets for advanced solar technology and replacing it with cheaper suppliers.
LOS ANGELES — A federal judge in California denied a motion to exclude the report of the court-appointed source code expert in a copyright infringement and trade secret dispute, noting that the plaintiffs did not challenge the expert’s qualifications and, in fact, initially proposed him as an expert and rejecting their argument that his report is biased.
Related suits in Texas and New York federal courts over what reinsurance broker Guy Carpenter & Company LLC alleged was a “coordinated raid” that created “a mirror image business” have been resolved via a confidential settlement agreement, the parties say in joint notices also seeking temporary stays.
FORT WORTH, Texas — A Texas federal judge on March 8 granted a motion by two U.S. subsidiaries of a Swiss pharmaceutical company to dismiss a trade secrets lawsuit brought against them by a U.K. company based on forum non conveniens, finding that a dispute over whether the subsidiaries improperly sought Food and Drug Administration approval for a cosmetic product must be resolved by arbitration in Switzerland.
LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge entered an order granting a joint stipulation by Swedish and American companies involved in a trade secrets and patent dispute over the manufacturing and selling of nicotine pouches to voluntarily dismiss two pending lawsuits between them with prejudice, with each party agreeing to bear its own attorney fees and costs.
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Concluding that Pfizer Inc. did not establish that email and text communications between it and the Federal Bureau of Investigation were protected by either the attorney-client privilege or the work product doctrine, a Connecticut federal judge granted a motion to compel discovery of those documents to the defendants in a trade secret misappropriation lawsuit over the development of a diabetes treatment.
LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge recently wrote in a minute entry that two lawsuits pertaining to a trade secrets and patent dispute over the manufacturing and selling of nicotine pouches are resolved after the Swedish and American companies involved informed the court during a final pretrial conference that they have resolved all of their remaining disputes over the alleged misuse of trade secrets.
PITTSBURGH — A federal magistrate judge in Pennsylvania ruled that although copyright and trademark infringement allegations by a fudge maker against his former wife fail, genuine issues of material fact preclude summary judgment on the question of whether reasonable measures were taken to protect a disputed fudge recipe.
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — An answer by Gibson Brands Inc. that added counterclaims of trade secret misappropriation is permissible, a federal judge in Michigan ruled, because an amended complaint in the parties’ dispute over guitar designs added allegations of state and federal antitrust law.
BOSTON — The First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reversed a lower federal court grant of summary judgment in favor of a commercial general liability insurer in an insured’s lawsuit seeking coverage for its defense of an underlying trade secrets lawsuit brought by a competitor, finding that the underlying complaint “fairly sketches a defamation claim” to trigger coverage.
HOUSTON — A federal judge in Texas on Nov. 10 ruled that two plaintiffs are entitled to a preliminary injunction on their patent infringement and trade secret misappropriation claims but that their copyright infringement claims fail for lack of standing.
LOS ANGELES — A medical apparel company that was awarded no damages by a jury after suing a rival company for allegedly taking its confidential data and using false marketing claims to net roughly $35 million in scrubs sales says in a status report that it wants a new trial and to continue pursuing its claim for violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL).