Bad pun aside, Hewlett-Packard has sued its former CEO, Mark Hurd, who left HP last month and reportedly just joined Oracle as its new co-president. (A copy of the complaint if available here.) No...
There is an endless variety of types of trade secrets and confidential information. (On the question of the significance of the distinction, see Trade Secret or Confidential Information?, posted on J...
You may recall that in February, a senior executive from Bimbo Bakeries USA, Inc. ("Bimbo") - maker of, among other things, Thomas' English Muffins - went to work for a competitor. The executive, Chri...
For those interested in the current status on the pending legislation to reform noncompete law in Massachusetts, the Boston Bar Association will be hosting a symposium on noncompete reform. The paneli...
eBay has reportedly been sued by EPRT Ventures for $3.8 million. The claim appears to be not only that eBay supposedly infringes on certain patents, but that eBay misappropriated trade secrets disclos...
Each time a new technology rolls out, legal decisions follow. Social media is the latest. Remember the cyberstalker? How about Facebook's lawsuit against Power.com? Or the class action against Face...
Lawsuits over trade secrets typically involve things like customer lists, formulas, manufacturing processes, etc. Can the location of houses for use as movie sets be a trade secret? Yep. Well, at leas...
Exactly one year ago, I wrote a post entitled "An Ounce of Prevention... " for my prior law firm's Trade Secret / Noncompete Blog (which I had created only days earlier). In the post, I recommended...
If you're not a patent lawyer, you probably haven't given much thought to the United States Supreme Court's ruling in Bilski v. Kappos, the decision that clarifies what the test is for determining whe...
About one year after trying unsuccessfully to enforce a noncompetetition agreement against high level former executive David Johnson to prevent him from going to Dell, IBM is now seeking to prevent an...
Back in January, I wrote about Bimbo Bakeries USA Inc. having sued a former executive who left for competitor Hostess Brands Inc. (The story appears on the Trade Secret / Noncompete Blog, which I had...
You followed the rules. You did as you were told. You didn’t take any documents from your former employer when you left your job. Excellent! But, what about your former employer’s trade secre...
This post is intended to answer many of the questions that I have been asked lately about the pending noncompete legislation. First, two important points: (1) The bill would not apply retroactiv...
In most states, trade secrets and confidential information (among certain other things) are legitimate business interests that may be protected through a noncompetition agreement (as well as through...
It is official: The Massachusetts noncompete bill (of which I am the principal draftsperson) has been reported out of committee. A copy is available here or by clicking on the picture to the right...