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Mealey's Trade Secret

  • May 06, 2022

    Judge Confirms $3M Award Against Chinese Company In Lightbulb Trade Secrets Row

    CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A North Carolina federal judge on May 4 granted a business’s petition to confirm an arbitral award worth more than $3 million against a Chinese LED light bulb manufacturer and its U.S. subsidiary despite new evidence showing that the tribunal calculated damages partly based on hypothetical lost royalties under a contract with a nonparty that was terminated before arbitration.

  • February 22, 2022

    Judge Says UCL Claim In Stem Cell Case ‘Displaced’ By Trade Secrets Claim

    SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge on Feb. 21 dismissed a U.S. stem cell company’s counterclaim for violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) in a pending suit against a Canadian company and its affiliates because it was “displaced” by the company’s sufficiently pleaded state law claim for misappropriation of trade secrets.

  • February 10, 2022

    6th Circuit Reverses Summary Judgment For Employer In Age Discrimination Claim

    CINCINNATI — A former employee alleging age discrimination when his employer failed to hire him for a remote position satisfied the burden to show that there is enough evidence to create a dispute regarding age discrimination, a split Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held Jan. 24, reversing a district court’s grant of summary judgment to the former employer.

  • January 31, 2022

    Editor’s Note

    The journalists and staff of Mealey’s Litigation Reports are saddened by the passing of co-founder Michael P. Mealey. He was a respected member of the newsletter community, being named publisher of the year by the National Newsletter Association and president of the National Newsletter Association. Mike and Judy Mealey started Mealey Publications Inc. in 1984. As president, Mike grew the Mealey’s Litigation Report portfolio, introduced email news bulletins and electronic CD formats and launched a continuing legal education conference business. Mealey’s was sold to LexisNexis in 2000. We hope to carry on his journalistic curiosity and integrity in the titles we continue to publish today under his name.

  • November 11, 2021

    Statutory Damages, Fees Unavailable In California Federal Copyright Row

    SAN DIEGO — A federal judge in California on Nov. 9 granted several defendants summary judgment on a request by a virtual prototyping software company for statutory damages and attorney fees in connection with a claim for copyright infringement.

  • October 25, 2021

    6th Circuit Won’t Rehear Chinese CEO And Company’s Bid To Compel Arbitration

    CINCINNATI — The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Oct. 15 denied the petition of a Chinese CEO and his medical device company for rehearing en banc of their appeal seeking to stay an Ohio company’s trade secrets claims against them pending arbitration in China with the CEO’s other company.

  • September 27, 2021

    Chinese CEO And Company Petition 6th Circuit To Rehear Bid To Compel Arbitration

    CINCINNATI — A Chinese CEO and his medical device company on Sept. 24 petitioned the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals for rehearing en banc of their bid to stay an Ohio company’s trade secrets claims against them pending arbitration in China with the CEO’s other company,  writing that the panel misapplied the test for equitable estoppel in arbitration contracts.

  • August 30, 2021

    Split 6th Circuit Panel Says Chinese Nonsignatory Can’t Compel Arbitration

    CINCINNATI — A Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals majority on Aug. 27 affirmed a district court’s denial of a Chinese CEO and his medical device company’s motion to stay an Ohio company’s trade secrets claims against them pending arbitration in China with the CEO’s other company and remanded the CEO’s agency argument to the district court, while a dissenting judge said the majority’s opinion is a “rewrite” of “pro-arbitration state laws.”

  • July 20, 2021

    In Rhode Island Patent, Trade Secret Case, Scope Of Retrial Established

    PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A federal judge in Rhode Island on July 16 clarified that a planned retrial on allegations of trade secret misappropriation will be limited to an algorithm for converting photometric measurements; in the same ruling, the judge rejected a bid by a defendant to recoup the attorney fees it incurred in successfully defending allegations of patent infringement.

  • June 08, 2021

    Judge:  GDPR Does Not Bar Discovery Of French Materials In POS Trade Secrets Row

    BOSTON — The French version of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) does not prevent a point of sale (POS) technology firm and a production partner from seeking discovery of important documents from a French rival in a dispute over trade secrets and patents, a Massachusetts federal judge ruled June 3, granting the plaintiffs’ motion to reconsider a previous ruling that had ordered discovery only from two domestic plaintiffs.

  • May 10, 2021

    Trade Secret Claims Over Unpublished Patent Application Tossed By Panel

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a longstanding dispute over hair treatment products, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on May 6 ordered a new trial on patent infringement and damages and reversed a denial of judgment as a matter of law (JMOL) that L'Oréal USA Inc. misappropriated trade secrets.

  • April 09, 2021

    Missouri Panel Partly Reverses Ruling In Coverage Suit Over Competitor’s Claims

    KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Missouri appeals panel on April 6 partly reversed a lower court’s ruling in a commercial general liability insurance coverage dispute arising from an underlying dispute between competitors in the lumber industry, finding that the insureds’ second amended complaint supported claims for bad faith failure to defend and failure to settle.

  • March 31, 2021

    Protective Order Issued In Software Developer’s Trade Secret Suit Against Insurer

    LAS VEGAS — A federal magistrate judge in Nevada on March 26 signed a stipulated protective order in a software provider’s lawsuit alleging that an insurer and another software provider misappropriated its trade secrets to develop a clone of its flood claims services system application.

  • March 16, 2021

    Software Firm Sues Dutch Counterpart For Trademark, Copyright, Contract Violations

    BREVARD, N.C. — An anti-phishing software firm filed suit in North Carolina federal court on March 12 against a Dutch company that had been its business partner, asserting trademark and copyright infringement related to computer source code that it says was used to develop new products and that the plaintiff claims belong to it .

  • March 16, 2021

    Federal Circuit Upholds Order Unsealing Amended Patent Complaint

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a March 15 ruling, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said it found no abuse of discretion in a Florida federal judge’s decision to unseal an amended complaint accusing a competitor of infringing a patented veterinary orthopedic implant.

  • February 18, 2021

    Expert Testimony Limited In Trade Secret Violations Case Involving Ex-Employees

    BALTIMORE — Expert testimony in a trade secret dispute will be limited, a Maryland federal judge ruled Feb. 8, finding that much of the proposed testimony of one expert constitutes inadmissible legal conclusions, with the rebuttal witness’s testimony largely rendered moot, and that challenges to another expert are best resolved through cross-examination.

  • January 06, 2021

    Federal Judge Stays Coverage Suit Pending Resolution Of Underlying Copyright Action

    SAN DIEGO — A federal judge in California on Dec. 22 stayed an insurer’s lawsuit disputing coverage for an underlying copyright infringement and trade secret appropriation action, finding that the three factors in Landis v. N. Am. Co. weigh in favor of a stay pending resolution of the underlying action.

  • December 18, 2020

    9th Circuit:  No Trade Secret Protection For Published Patent Info

    SAN FRANCISCO — In a Dec. 16 holding, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals upheld a dismissal of allegations that Google LLC violated the Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016 when it disclosed engineered architecture (EA) information in patent applications filed in 2011 and published in 2012 (Eli Attia, et al. v. Google LLC, No. 19-15771, 9th Cir., 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 39491).

  • November 23, 2020

    5th Circuit: Company’s Trade Secrets Claims Are Subject To Arbitration In U.K.

    NEW ORLEANS — A Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel in a Nov. 10 unpublished opinion affirmed a district court’s dismissal of a Texas tech company’s trade secret and computer fraud claims against its U.K.-based former CEO, finding that the parties’ agreement calls for arbitration of disputes in London and gives English courts exclusive jurisdiction over those disputes (Fintech Fund, F.L.P. v. Ralph Horne, No. 18-20449, 5th Cir., 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 35418).

  • November 20, 2020

    Letter From The Editor

    Dear Mealey’s® Trade Secret Law Report subscribers,