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Mealey's Trade Secret

  • 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    Trade Secret Claims Over Unpublished Patent Application Tossed By Panel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,

  • November 19, 2020

    South Dakota High Court Upholds Dismissal Of Trade Secret Claims

    PIERRE, S.D. — A South Dakota trial court did not err when it granted summary judgment in favor of defendants in a breach of contract and misappropriation of trade secrets lawsuit filed by a medical practice management services provider on claims that the certain of the defendants misappropriated the company’s trade secret information after forming a competing business because the company failed to plead its trade secret misappropriation claim with the requisite specificity, the South Dakota Supreme Court ruled Oct. 28 (Aqreva LLC v. Eide Bailly LLP, et al., No. 29142, S.D. Sup., 2020 S.D. LEXIS 124).

  • November 19, 2020

    CSO Services Provider’s State, Federal Trade Secret Claims Deemed Sufficient

    BALTIMORE — A federal judge in Maryland on Oct. 27 denied a pair motions to dismiss in a trade secret misappropriation lawsuit filed by a provider of court security officers (CSOs) for federal courts on behalf of the U.S. Marshal’s Service (USMS), ruling that the material contained in an exhibit in the plaintiff’s complaint, as well as other evidence provided, sufficiently lists the trade secret information the defendants are alleged to have misappropriated (Paragon Systems Inc. v. Michael Hughes, et al., No. 20-1209, D. Md., 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 199932).

  • November 19, 2020

    Appeal Filed In Contract Suit Over Alleged Restrictive Covenant Breach

    FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A defendant in a breach of contract lawsuit will ask the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to weigh in on a federal district court’s grant of a preliminary injunction against her stemming from her alleged violation of certain restrictive covenants she agreed to as part of her employment with an energy drink company, according to a notice of appeal filed Nov. 6 in Florida federal court (Vital Pharmaceuticals Inc. v. Christopher Alfieri, et al., No. 20-61307, S.D. Fla.).

  • November 19, 2020

    Microscope Equipment Maker Hits Rival With State, Federal Trade Secret Claims

    PITTSBURGH — A former employee of a transmission electron microscopes (TEM) equipment manufacturer and the company that he formed have misappropriated an industry competitor’s trade secrets and are using those trade secrets to compete with the company in the TEM equipment industry, the company alleges in a complaint filed Oct. 29 in Pennsylvania federal court (E.A. Fischione Instruments Inc. v. Simple Organ Inc., et al., No. 20-1651, W.D. Pa.).

  • November 19, 2020

    Private Equity Firm Scores Favorable Summary Judgment Ruling In Trade Secret Row

    HOUSTON — A federal judge in Texas on Nov. 17 ruled that a firm has failed to present any evidence that a private equity investor misappropriated its trade secret information relating to an oil and gas exploration project for which the firm sought private equity investment because the firm failed to sufficiently plead the existence of a trade secret or that the defendants improperly used the proprietary information provided to them pursuant to the terms of a confidentiality agreement (Recif Resources LLC v. Juniper Capital Advisors LP, et al., No. 19-2953, S.D. Texas, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 214558).

  • November 18, 2020

    Counterclaims In Trade Secret Dispute Over Alleged Comments Dismissed

    SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge in California on Nov. 16 ruled that dismissal of counterclaims in a trade secret misappropriation, breach of contract and copyright infringement lawsuit brought by a developer of cyber security productions and its subsidiary is warranted because the defendants failed to sufficiently show that statements made by the plaintiffs to their customers about the defendants were false (Proofpoint Inc. v. Vade Secure Inc., No. 19-4238, N.D. Calif., 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 213980).

  • November 18, 2020

    Company’s Former Exec To Pay $450,000 To Settle Trade Secret Claims

    CAMDEN, N.J. — A federal judge in New Jersey on Nov. 16 granted approval of a $450,000 cash settlement in a trade secret misappropriation lawsuit brought against a former employee of a mail services company who was alleged to have misappropriated the company’s trade secrets to steal business with the Church of Scientology (COS) from his former employer for his own financial benefit (Asendia USA Inc. v. Eugene J. Donohue, et al., No. 20-2490, D. N.J.).

  • November 17, 2020

    Judge:  Trade Secret Suit Defendant Not Entitled To Attorney Fee Award

    NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York on Nov. 12 ruled that a defendant in a breach of contract and trade secret misappropriation lawsuit is not entitled to attorney fees based on a provision in a confidentiality and nonsolicitation agreement he signed with his former employer because the lawsuit was dismissed prior to a determination on the merits of his former employer’s contract breach claim (K’oyitl’ots’ina Ltd. v. Robert Gottschalk, No. 10-11309, S.D. N.Y., 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 212118).