Notes on Trade Secret Litigation
WINNING! According to Lex Machina, between 2019 and 2023, trade secret plaintiffs in federal cases that went to trial won 86% of cases, which is approximately 30% higher than the success rate across all federal cases. This is particularly interesting because more trade secret cases are being filed while the number of patent infringement cases […]
Have You Really Thought Through Your Due DIligence?
Due diligence identifies potential risks before closing a deal. The goal is to find problems that may lead to renegotiating, reducing the purchase price, or walking away from a deal. Yet many issues remain hidden despite rigorous due diligence. Earlier in my career I read about issues that were raised in a bankruptcy asset sale […]
Choosing A Law Firm: Supersizing Often Fails
Would you hire a vendor that does not properly regard conflicts of interest? Fails to abide by basic business rules and laws? Loses you in the shuffle of other and larger clients? Violates its own internal procedures? Of course not. Yet business owners do this every day when engaging law firms. So please accept this […]
AI and TRADE SECRETS
Almost one year has passed since news broke about Samsung employees sharing highly sensitive trade secrets with ChatGPT while testing software. As one of the world’s largest companies, Samsung has undertaken a wide–and expensive–series of measures to protect against intentional or unintentional disclosure of trade secrets. But trade secrets are usually taken without permission versus […]
Trade Secret Insurance Considerations
Trade secret insurance protects businesses from financial losses resulting from the theft, misappropriation, or unauthorized disclosure of their trade secrets. A broad definition of trade secrets requires information to be (a) protected as confidential and proprietary; and (b) have economic value because the public does not have access to the information. That being said, do […]
Inevitable Disclosure and the Defend Trade Secrets Act
The inevitable disclosure doctrine in trade secrets cases is a simple concept. At its core, it presumes a former employee will inevitably disclose and use trade secrets of the former employer in the employee’s role with the new employer. As a result, it further presumes, it is inevitable that the former employee will disclose and use the […]
Drafting Cease and Desist Letters
Effective cease and desist letters do not require fancy lawyerly language. Like many other letters, they need to be direct and terse without sugarcoating the fact your company will take certain actions to protect its trade secrets and other confidential information. Your goal is to convince the new employer’s legal counsel, not the former employee, […]
NDA No-Nos
It is common knowledge that a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) does not provide absolute protection of a company’s intellectual property or other proprietary information. Unfortunately, many business owners are not advised with sufficient detail as to (1) why an NDA is insufficient and (2) how to keep an NDA enforceable. Receiving poor or no advice concerning […]
When Secrets May Not Be Trade Secrets
In many trade secret disputes, the parties are focused on fighting over whether the information was adequately protected