On April 23, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) voted 3-2 to issue a proposed final rule (“Final Rule”), which, absent a successful legal challenge, will ban most noncompete agreements in the United States.
Despite more than 26,000 comments from the public, the Final Rule does not narrow the rule…
Taking legal action to protect a trade secret is unlike other intellectual property litigation since what you’re trying to protect is a secret. Plaintiffs must navigate a fine line between pleading their complaint with enough specificity to put the Defendant on notice of what they allegedly misappropriated, but not too much to diminish the value of the secret. Several recent decisions indicate how to strike this balance.
An American Arbitration Association arbitrator recently awarded Black Knight, Inc. (BK) $155M stemming from Pennymac Loan Services, LLC’s (Pennymac) alleged use of its mortgage-loan servicing platform to develop its own competing product. Though the arbitrator did not find Pennymac liable for trade secret misappropriation, they found that the use of…
On November 1, 2023, a jury in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California awarded damages to Skye Orthobiologics, LLC (“Skye”) and Human Regenerative Technologies, LLC (“HRT”) for breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, and breach of duty of loyalty by Skye’s former employee (“Defendant”). While…
Proving access to and use of trade secrets are core elements in a trade secrets misappropriation case. Recent rulings in a trade secrets action filed by Allergan against its competitor Revance Therapeutics (“Revance”) provide helpful guidance on what is sufficient to plead these elements. There, the court explained what facts are—and…
On August 29, 2023, the First Circuit affirmed a ruling from the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts that Allstate Insurance agents misappropriated trade secrets when they retained spreadsheets that contained confidential information. Allstate Ins. Co. v. Fougere, 79 F.4th 172 (1st Cir. 2023). Significantly, the First Circuit rejected the argument that the spreadsheets could not be trade secrets because most of the information within them is publicly available.
On November 9, 2023, in Ho-Ho-Kus, Inc. v. Sucharski, No. 2:23-cv-01677, the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey found that Ho-Ho-Kus, Inc. (“HHK”) failed to show a trade secret existed with adequate specificity to justify granting a TRO or a preliminary injunction, but nevertheless denied a motion to dismiss arguing that the company failed to sufficiently plead the existence of a trade secret.
In an era where trade secret misappropriation battles can shape corporate landscapes, the Apple v. Rivos case stands as a stark reminder of the importance of diligent onboarding practices when it comes to trade secrets. In this case, the court’s scrutiny of employee conduct underscores a crucial lesson: companies should…
The 2016 enactment of the Defend Trade Secrets Act (“DTSA”) has led to an increase in trade secret litigation. The DTSA codified into federal law the right of an owner of a trade secret to sue in federal court when its trade secret had been misappropriated. Prior to the DTSA…
On December 1, 2023, in Global Discovery Biosciences Corp. v. Harrington, et al., No. 2022-1132, a Vice Chancellor of the Delaware Court of Chancery ruled on the balance of a motion to dismiss brought back in June 2023 by two former CEOs-Dr. Harrington and Mr. Nuñez (together, “Defendants”)-who were…
