Recognizing the need to crack down on misappropriation of trade secrets, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has stepped up its enforcement of the Economic Espionage Act, among other statutes. See the DO...
Hairdressers have been held out as a prime example why noncompete reform is required in Massachusetts. Whenever the hairdressers are rolled out, however, those opposed to reform contend that courts â€...
Today's headlines provided an interesting twist on the intersection between trade secret law and sunshine (or "freedom of information") laws. See UConn Fights to Keep Donor List Secret. Typically,...
As we all know, trade secret litigation has been steadily on the rise for the past decade. (See The Who, What, Where, When, How, and Why of Trade Secret Audits and, in the related area of noncompete...
For those of you interested in seeing a copy of the Massachusetts noncompete bill as it was filed, click here or on the image to the right. Remember that the goal of the Representatives sponsoring...
The bill in Massachusetts to codify, clarify, and modernize Massachusetts law relative to employee noncompetition agreements was re-filed today, with several significant changes from the prior version...
I don't think I've ever before provided just a link to another story, but, under the circumstances, just click here to see how squirrelly things have gotten in the world of noncompetes.  Enjoy!...
While most people think of noncompete agreements as the traditional, “you can’t work there” type, there is another type of agreement that can create financial incentives so great that, as a prac...
This post is a bit unusual for me. It is not about substantive law. It's not about Fair Competition Law issues in the news. It's not even my own analysis. Rather, it is a list - by a different blog (T...
We spend lots of time on this blog discussing trade secret protection. To give some context, I thought it might be helpful to have a few statistics: Trade secret and related noncompete cases have m...
The BRR 50 State Noncompete Chart has been updated today (December 7, 2010) to reflect a clarification of Wisconsin’s rule on dealing with overly broad noncompete agreements. Click here to get the l...
Hank Mullany, former president of Walmart's northern U.S. division, reportedly left Walmart to head up CVS's retail pharmacy. In response, Walmart sued Mullany (Wal-Mart Stores Inc. v. Mullany, CA No...
Pfizer reportedly sold $11.4 billion – yes, billion with a “b” – of cholesterol-lowing drug, Lipitor, last year and is reportedly on track to sell another $13 billion this year. See here....
We need your help... We are pleased to announce that we were selected by the ABA for inclusion in its top 100 Blawgs. The list was compiled by the editors based on their personal favorites. Now,...
For those interested in the status of and plans for the Massachusetts noncompete bill or Massachusetts noncompete law more generally, there are two up-coming discussions you may wish to attend. The...
This week’s disclosures by Wikileaks of hundreds of thousands of classified, secret documents is a stark reminder of the admonitions that we trade secrets lawyers have been saying for years: It is...
A lot has been written on how insecure social media can be and the need to assess the risks. I won't bother to add more. Â I am, however, passing along a very-well written (and lengthy) discussion of...
Earlier this month, I tried something a bit different. Doing a take-off on what I do in the last class of the Trade Secrets and Restrictive Covenants course that I teach at Boston University School o...
Well, there continues to be a lot of discussion about Georgia's new noncompete law. The most recent discussion at this point is not about the substance, however. Rather, it's about whether the law is...
While there are many tales of trade secrets, the two most heralded are: (1) the heroic measures taken to protect the secret formula to Coke and (2) the claim that the origins of trade secret law date...
International trade secret theft has become an increasing problem. As a primer for our readers, we have created an "International Trade Secrets" links section, which we are in the process of popul...
The 50 state survey of noncompete laws has been updated, primarily to reflect the change in Georgia law. It is available for download here. Please note that the chart will be periodically updated...
Well, the waiting is over. Georgia voters voted to change their constitution to permit noncompetes to be more enforceable. Georgia had been long known as one of the harder states in which to enforc...
I am trying something a bit different. It's a take-off on what I do in my last class in the Trade Secrets and Restrictive Covenants course I teach at Boston University School of Law. So, here it goes....