Happy holidays! Episode 13 of Fairly Competing is out! In this episode, John, Ben, and Russell take a look back on some of the more significant developments in trade secret and restrictive coven...
Episode 10 of Fairly Competing is out! In this episode, Ben Fink, John Marsh, and I explore the Supreme Court’s decision in Van Buren v. U.S., narrowly interpreting the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1030 — and what it means for protecting proprietary electronic materials.
The Supreme Court’s decision in Van Buren is out. The Court took a narrow view on the scope of the CFAA, resolving key aspects of the circuit split, and eliminating the concern that every breach of fiduciary duties by an employee or violation by an employee of the terms of their employer’s computer use policy can be a criminal act.
The split in the Circuits over the scope of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act is up at the U.S. Supreme Court today. The issue: Whether a person who is authorized to access information on a computer for certain purposes violates Section 1030(a)(2) of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act if he accesses the same information for an improper purpose.
As many of you know, I am very involved with the American Intellectual Property Law Association’s Trade Secret Law Committee. And, as you may also know, each year, we hold a multi-day, in-depth pro...
Given the recent changes to Indiana law and Virginia law, both of which take effect on July 1, I have again updated my 50 State Noncompete Chart. The chart is now current through June 27, 2020. A...
The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act deems certain uses of a computer to be unlawful (civilly and criminally). But, the Act is not the picture of clarity. The language that has created the most...
Having looked back over the last couple of years, I realized that I have failed to provide enough updates on issues and cases making trade secrets | noncompete news. So, I am going to try to resume...
In anticpation of speaking at the Boston Bar Association’s 16th Annual Intellectual Property Year in Review earlier this month, with some assistance from several of my colleagues (Nicole Daly, Ha...
This past week, the Boston Bar Association held its 14th annual Intellectual Property Year in Review. I covered trade secrets (including related restrictive covenants). Below is a summary of those dev...
Last week (on June 20, 2013), Representatives Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), James Sensenbrenner (R-WI), Mike Doyle (D-PA), Yvette Clarke (D-NY), and Jared Polis (D-CO) introduced a new (bipartisan) version...
In February 2013, the Obama Administration issued Administration Strategy on Mitigating the Theft of U.S. Trade Secrets. Part of that plan included the Administration's solicitation of public comment...
Many of us have been hopeful that with the deep split in the circuits (the 4th and 9th with their narrow interpretation versus the 1st, 5th, 7th, 11th, with their broad interpretation) on the reac...
Once again, this installment of “Trade Secret | Noncompete Issues and Cases in the News” is my vacation readings update. There is again a lot here! Enjoy… Federal/Antitrust: In October 2009,...
It seems that, lately, each installment of Trade Secret | Noncompete Issues and Cases in the News could be called, “What I read over my vacation.” As was inevitably the case, given the time betwee...
Like a similar post last month, this post provides a summary of noncompete and trade secret issues and cases that have arisen in the past month or so, but that I have not already addressed in recent p...
About two years ago, my partner Steve Riden and I wrote a blog post on my old blog (the Trade Secrets / Noncompete Blog) entitled, Back to the Basics... The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. The post wa...