Mealey's Trade Secret

  • March 08, 2024

    Trade Secret Disclosed In Patent Is Public Knowledge, Interlocutory Appellant Says

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — In corrected opening and response briefs in an interlocutory appeal of a Massachusetts federal judge’s preliminary injunction, two makers of competing insulin patch pumps square off on several issues including whether purported trade secrets were made public in filings with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO).

  • February 05, 2024

    Judge: No Coverage Owed For Unfair Competition Suit Brought Against Insured

    SAN DIEGO — A federal judge in California concluded that an insurer has no duty to defend its furniture delivery company insured against an underlying misappropriation of trade secrets and unfair competition lawsuit brought by a competitor, granting the insurer’s motion for summary judgment in the insured’s breach of contract and bad faith lawsuit.

  • January 23, 2024

    Stipulation Ends Suit Over Alleged ‘Raid’ Of Facultative Reinsurance Brokerage

    CHICAGO — After all parties filed a stipulation of dismissal with prejudice, an Illinois federal judge terminated a breach of contract and Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA) suit over an alleged “raid” of a facultative reinsurance brokerage.

  • December 08, 2023

    Judge Certifies Appeal Over Expert Testimony In Case About Fracking Data

    HOUSTON — A federal judge has issued an order certifying an interlocutory appeal of a ruling that denied a defendant’s motion to exclude a plaintiff’s witness regarding his testimony on reasonable royalty damages in a dispute over the disclosure of unlicensed seismic data to a third-party oil and gas operator.  The judge, who had concluded that the testimony is permitted as long as it complies with the requirements of Federal Rule of Evidence 701, certified the appeal, saying the matter presents “a controlling question of law” and the resolution of the issue would “materially advance the litigation.”

  • November 22, 2023

    Georgia Court Stays Release Of PFAS Settlement As DuPont Claims Trade Secrets

    ATLANTA — The Georgia Court of Appeals stayed an order by a trial court that called for the terms of a per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) settlement to be published and granted an emergency motion filed by E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. and its affiliates seeking to keep the terms of the agreement private on grounds that it contains trade secrets.

  • November 20, 2023

    Louisiana High Court Refuses To Review Ruling In Suit Alleging Insured Stole Files

    NEW ORLEANS — The Louisiana Supreme Court refused to disturb a Louisiana appeals court’s finding that a residential mortgage broker’s electronic loan files are “tangible” under state law and, therefore, can be defined as “‘property’ that is susceptible to ‘loss of use’” under a competitor’s business liability insurance policy, allowing to stand the lower court’s reversal of a summary judgment ruling in favor of an insurer that intervened in the broker’s lawsuit alleging that its insured used stolen files to broker mortgage loans for its customers.

  • November 01, 2023

    Panel Orders Transfer Of False Advertising, Copyright Claims Against TikTok

    NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Oct. 31 granted a petition for writ of mandamus by TikTok Inc. and others, agreeing that allegations that the popular video sharing app engages in false advertising and copyright infringement should proceed in California federal court.

  • October 19, 2023

    On Eve Of Trademark Trial, New Damages Theory By Ford Fails

    DETROIT — An “11th hour” bid by Ford Motor Co. for damages under an unjust enrichment theory in a trademark infringement and trade secret misappropriation dispute with a former business associate failed in Michigan federal court.

  • October 11, 2023

    Mortgage Servicer Accuses Payment Processor Of Misusing Customer Data

    DALLAS — A mortgage payment processor misused a mortgage servicer’s customer data when it conducted quality assurance (QA) testing with customers’ nonpublic, personal information while in a live production environment rather than a walled-off testing environment, the mortgage servicer alleges in a complaint filed in a federal court in Texas.

  • September 18, 2023

    Judge Says CGL Insurer Owes Reasonable Defense Costs, Orders Allocation Of Costs

    BOSTON — A federal judge in Massachusetts held that a commercial general liability insurer has a duty to pay all reasonable defense costs incurred by its insured in an underlying trade secret lawsuit brought by a competitor but ordered a reasonable allocation of costs between the insured and noninsured parties.

  • September 14, 2023

    DuPont Sues City, Newspapers To Protect Trade Secrets In PFAS Settlement

    ROME, Ga. — E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. and its affiliates have sued the city of Rome, Ga., and two newspapers in Georgia state court in an attempt to prevent the publication of the terms of a settlement agreement related to a lawsuit brought by the city against DuPont concerning contamination from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) on grounds that the agreement contains confidential trade secrets.

  • August 07, 2023

    Judge Stays Solar Panel Companies’ UCL, Trade Secret Row Pending Arbitration

    SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge stayed a lawsuit brought by a Korean solar panel manufacturer accusing two California-based solar panel companies of violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL), misappropriation of trade secrets and defamation pending the outcome of the parties’ arbitration in Singapore, finding that the parties’ agreement delegates questions of arbitrability to the arbitrators.

  • July 26, 2023

    New Jersey Trade Secret Dispute Over Patent Application Will Proceed

    TRENTON, N.J. — A claim by Nasdaq Inc. for violation of a New Jersey trade secret law in connection with the disclosure of an automated securities trading patent does not predate the law’s enactment, a federal judge in New Jersey ruled, denying a defendant’s motion for judgment as a matter of law.

  • June 14, 2023

    Facultative Reinsurance Brokerage Loses TRO Bid In Suit Over Alleged Raid

    CHICAGO — Ruling that plaintiffs in a breach of contract and Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA) suit over an alleged “raid” of a facultative reinsurance brokerage demonstrated neither “a likelihood of success on the merits” nor that they would be irreparably harmed without a temporary restraining order (TRO), an Illinois federal judge denied their TRO bid.

  • June 13, 2023

    AI Marketing Company Sues AI Ad Firm For Contract, Trade Secret Violations

    SAN ANTONIO — An artificial intelligence (AI) marketing firm filed suit against a company with which it had a business agreement, telling a Texas federal court that the company “lured [it] into providing access to its platform and proprietary assets” for the purpose of misappropriating them.

  • June 09, 2023

    TRO Bid Denied In Suit Over Alleged Raid On Facultative Reinsurance Group

    CHICAGO — An Illinois federal judge denied a motion for a temporary restraining order (TRO) in a suit asserting claims including breach of contract and violation of the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA) regarding an alleged “raid” of a facultative reinsurance group.

  • May 30, 2023

    Judge Denies Certified Question, Says Parties Must Unwind AI Merger Software Sale

    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.

  • May 26, 2023

    Parties Dispute TRO Bid In Suit Over Alleged Raid On Facultative Reinsurance Group

    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.”

  • April 28, 2023

    Judge Dismisses UCL Counterclaim In Fake Meat Makers’ Patent Dispute

    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.

  • April 24, 2023

    Oil Company Says Former CFO Stole Trade Secrets To Form Competing Firm

    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.”

  • April 24, 2023

    After Settlement Report, Reinsurance Broker Dismisses ‘Coordinated Raid’ Cases

    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.”

  • April 19, 2023

    In Minnesota Trademark Row, Judge Sanctions ‘Contumacious’ Conduct

    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.

  • April 12, 2023

    Copyright, Trade Secret, Lanham Act Case Against TikTok To Remain In Texas

    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.

  • April 06, 2023

    Judge Says Factual Dispute Over Trade Secrets Exists In Fracking Chemicals Case

    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.

  • March 20, 2023

    Korean Solar Panel Maker Accuses Calif. Companies Of UCL, Trade Secrets Violations

    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.