Who controls what's in your brain? When a former employee knows his or her former employer’s trade secrets, the former employer may be able to obtain injunctive relief preventing the employee, not...
In the continuing stream of states reviewing and modifying their noncompete and trade secrets laws, another state - Maryland - has taken the approach of banning noncompetes for low-wage workers - as s...
It's been a while since I've had the time to update the Changing Trade Secrets | Noncompete Laws page. Lots has happened in the interim - see below for all of the updates so far this year. I will...
Back in July, I posted a story about how courts and lawyers frequently assess whether a noncompete is overly broad by asking whether the restriction would prevent the employee from working as a janit...
The "janitor rule," as it's come to be known, is the rule of thumb in restrictive covenant law that if a noncompetition agreement (or other restrictive covenant) restricts the scope of a former employ...
On April 26, Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Chris Murphy (D-CT), and Ron Wyden (D-OR) introduced the Workforce Mobility Act to impose a federal ban on the use of employee noncompetes. A compan...
Today, the Massachusetts Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development held a hearing on the 8 bills involving noncompetes or trade secrets currently pending at the State House. As many of you w...
The Massachusetts Senate voted tonight on Massachusetts trade secrets law and noncompete law reform. Senators proposed multiple amendments to the version of the bill that Senator Mark Montigny, ...
Below are the latest issues and cases making trade secrets | noncompete news since our last update … (My apologies to those who received an email update with a draft of this post.) Also, no...
Below are the latest issues and cases making trade secrets | noncompete news since our last update … Federal: The Defend Trade Secrets Act is now law of the land. The United States now (offic...
After 5 years in the making, the Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016 (the "DTSA") was signed into law today by President Obama (following a unanimous vote by the Senate (87-0) and nearly unanimous vote...
Below are the latest issues and cases making trade secrets | noncompete news since our last update … Federal: The president has until Saturday to sign or veto the DTSA. "[D]escribed as the '...
With trade secret theft growing and showing no sign of stopping, it's no surprise that there has been bipartisan support for Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016 (DTSA) - the act that amends the Economic...
Updated on 4/20/2016 at 10:48 AM EDT; updated again on 4/26/2016 at 8:25 EDT: As you will recall, on April 4, the Senate voted unanimously to approve the Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016 (commo...
On March 10 (the last day to do so), the Utah legislature passed the Senate's amended version of the noncompete reform bill. For details about the bill, see Utah Noncompete Reform: Only Today Left....
Below are the latest issues and cases making trade secrets | noncompete news since our last update … Georgia: In February, the Georgia State Senate focused on the intersection between publics r...
Massachusetts noncompete reform efforts took a significant step forward today. Massachusetts Speaker of the House Robert DeLeo announced today a very thoughtful proposal for significant changes...
There have been a few issues and cases making trade secrets | noncompete news recently that are worth taking note of if you missed them. They are as follows… Michigan: Republican (yes, Republ...
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...
On September 17, the Trade Secrets Protection Act of 2014 was reported out of committee with several amendments from the version that was submitted to committee. It has a 57% chance of enactment.
On April 29, the Massachusetts Legislature’s Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development favorably reported out a bill (available here) very close to Governor Patrick’s proposed adoption of...
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...