In Part 2 of our tour of the history of trade secret law and developments since before Roman times, we pick up while Newton is inventing calculus.
As we ponder the best ways to protect trade secrets today, it’s good to have a quick reminder that this has been a long-term issue. So, we’ll take a two-part tour of trade secret law and developments from before Roman times to now.
Given that good CLE programs can be hard to identify, I put together a list of a few upcoming, content-rich programs that I and leading practitioners, in-house counsel, experts, and others from around the country are participating in.
Our legal system is far from perfect. And, unfortunately, it frequently permits abuses. In the context of restrictive covenants and trade secret claims, oftentimes it’s an overly-aggressive forme...
Over 50 percent of employees admit stealing company information when they leave for a new job. It’s this “insider threat” that keeps us up at night. To help combat it, we have updated and reissued our training, Protecting Trade Secrets While Working From Home, with improved audio and additional substance.
The thought of trade secrets tends to conjure up images of cloak and dagger operations, secret laboratories, the secret formula to Coca-Cola, Google’s search algorithm, and the like. But trade secre...
As noted in our post, Ask 70 Trade Secret Lawyers and Paralegals about Noncompetes and Get One Opinion, the FTC and DOJ encouraged the submission of public comments following the “Making Competiti...
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...
No one ever points to North Dakota’s or Oklahoma’s ban on noncompete as producing a thriving tech sector, because they haven’t. Yet, somehow think that the same ban in California is why we have Silicon Valley. This assumption is wrong for multiple reasons. Worse, it leads to poor policy.
As regular readers of this blog know, I focus on providing content and rarely suggest educational programs to attend. However, given that CLE programs are still remote and can be hard to identify, I t...
Misconceptions about noncompetes abound. And, as noncompete agreements are increasingly in the cross-hairs of the media and legislators, it has become increasingly clear that some of the most vocal de...
Episode 7 of Fairly Competing is out, and it’s a departure from our usual. We are making available (through this episode and the last) Trade Secret Roundtable on Developments and Emerging Issu...
This episode is a departure from our usual. The program is part one of the Trade Secret Roundtable on Developments and Emerging Issues, a program presented by NERA Economic Consulting at which John Marsh, Ben Fink, and I were panelists along with Dr. Stephanie Demperio and Vicki Cundiff.
The Business Litigation Session (the “BLS”) of the Massachusetts Superior Court just issued a decision on the scope of preemption under Massachusetts “new” (effective October 1, 2018) trade secret law, the Massachusetts Uniform Trade Secrets Act (sometimes referred to as “MUTSA,” and other times as “MTSA”). See what it says.
Episode 5 of Fairly Competing is out! In this episode, Ben Fink, John Marsh, and I discuss the standards that apply and issues that arise when seeking or defending against an injunction in a trade secret or restrictive covenant case, and how they’ve been impacted by COVID. We also discuss the “Unicorn Case” and whether geographic restrictions make sense anymore.
Episode 4 of Fairly Competing is out! In this episode, Ben Fink, John Marsh, and I discuss two additional hot topics in trade secret and noncompete law, particularly during COVID-19: protecting trade secrets through technologies like Zoom and the importance of exit interviews and how to manage the departure of remote workers.
Episode 3 of Fairly Competing is out! In this episode, Ben Fink, John Marsh, and I discuss employee surveillance and protecting legitimate business interests when an employee’s employment is terminated without cause.
Ben Fink, John Marsh, and I are pleased to announce the launch of Fairly Competing — a podcast providing in-depth analysis of trade secret law and the law of noncompetes and other restrictive covenants for a broad audience.
You can often can tell where a decision is headed just by its opening line. In Peggy Lawton Kitchens, Inc. v. Hogan (a seminal trade secret case in Massachusetts about the theft of a beloved se...
It turns out that global climate change is caused by a decrease in the number of pirates. Don’t believe it? See the chart to the right. This is an example of mistaking correlation for causati...
On June 24, 2019, the United States Supreme Court issued its much-awaited decision in Food Marketing Institute v. Argus Leader Media, addressing the intersection of trade secrets law and the Freedom...