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Trading Secrets A Law Blog on Trade Secrets, Non-Competes, and Computer Fraud

Tag Archives: California

California Federal Court Dismisses Computer Fraud and State Unfair Competition Claims Alleged Against Ex-Employees Accused Of Stealing Computer Source Code

Posted in Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, Practice & Procedure

A designer and marketer of stereophonic technology for presenting 3-D imaging on a computer screen recently sued some ex-employees in a California federal court for allegedly violating the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), among other claims. At some point, the ex-employees allegedly downloaded their former employer’s confidential computer code and provided it to their… Continue Reading

Is Your Company’s Customer List Still A Trade Secret If Your Company Uses Labeled Delivery Trucks?

Posted in Practice & Procedure, Trade Secrets

Does using a labeled truck identifying your company to deliver products to your clients make your client list publicly available? Will doing so undermine protecting your client list as a trade secret?  Last month, the defendant in a case before a federal district judge in California tried to make that argument, and while the case was decided on other… Continue Reading

Corporate Recruiter Convicted of Computer Fraud and Trade Secret Theft By San Francisco Jury

Posted in Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, Data Theft, Trade Secrets

By Robert Milligan and Joshua Salinas A California federal jury convicted a San Francisco executive recruiter this week for violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (“CFAA”) and theft of trade secrets from his former employer. The conviction represents a significant landmark in the closely watched eight-year case that deepened a federal circuit court… Continue Reading

California Court Tosses Idea Theft Suit Over LOST Television Show Out to Sea

Posted in Practice & Procedure, Trade Secrets, Unfair Competition

By Michael Baniak and Puya Partow-Navid Arthur Quiller-Couch formulated seven basic plots for a conflict.  Following his formula, every movie and television show can be narrowed down to one of seven basic plots.  Although the number of plots may be limited, there are inifinite ways to tell a story.  In a town like Hollywood, where everyone… Continue Reading

Growing California Trade Secret Preemption Doctrine May Thwart Efforts To Combat Employee Data Theft

Posted in Data Theft, Practice & Procedure, Trade Secrets, Unfair Competition

By Robert B. Milligan, Jessica Mendelson, and Daniel Joshua Salinas Company information that is sensitive, but may not rise to the level of a trade secret is protectable in California, isn’t it? Not necessarily. Some recent California decisions have significantly limited an employer’s ability to pursue certain claims and remedies based upon the theft of… Continue Reading

Recent California Federal Court Rulings Muddy the Interpretation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act

Posted in Computer Fraud and Abuse Act

Does the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (“CFAA”) prohibit hacking–improperly gaining entrance into a computer system–or simply prohibit improper use of a computer system? U.S. Courts of Appeal are divided. Now, district and appellate court judges in a single federal case pending in the Northern District of California, U.S. v. Nosal, have produced several divergent… Continue Reading

Massachusetts Governor Weighs In On Non-Compete Reform Debate

Posted in Legislation, Non-Compete Enforceability

At the annual meeting of the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council on March 12, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick reportedly described arguments in favor of eliminating the state’s longstanding approval of non-compete clauses as “compelling,” while stopping short of endorsing those efforts.  During a question-and-answer session at the conference, Branko Gerovac, chief strategy officer at search engine optimization… Continue Reading

California Style Non-Compete Legislation Introduced In Minnesota

Posted in Legislation, Non-Compete Enforceability

New proposed legislation introduced in the Minnesota House of Representatives would invalidate effectively all employee non-compete agreements if passed.  On February 11, 2013, Democratic-Farmer-Labor party members Joe Atkins and Alice Hausman introduced H.F. No. 506.  The bill was read and referred to the Committee on Labor, Workplace and Regulated Industries, a committee chaired by Rep. Sheldon… Continue Reading

California Federal Court Allows Non-Signatory to Arbitration Agreement to Compel Arbitration in Trade Secrets Dispute

Posted in Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, Restrictive Covenants, Trade Secrets

A federal district court in the Northern District of California recently found that a non-signatory to an arbitration agreement may enforce that agreement against a signatory and compel arbitration under the doctrine of equitable estoppel. Semin, a software developer, worked for Torbit, Inc. He signed an employment agreement containing a proprietary information non-disclosure provision, and a commitment… Continue Reading

California Federal Court Dismisses California Employee’s Challenge Of His Non-Compete Agreement Based Upon Enforceable Forum Selection Provision

Posted in Non-Compete Enforceability, Practice & Procedure, Restrictive Covenants, Unfair Competition

By Robert Milligan and Grace Chuchla California federal courts have again said it loud and clear — when analyzing whether or not the enforcement of a forum selection clause within a non-competition agreement is contrary to California public policy, the court will not consider the substantive effects of enforcing the clause.  In a recent case out of… Continue Reading

Recent California Supreme Court Decision Stokes Debate Over Scope of Trade Secret Preemption

Posted in Practice & Procedure, Trade Secrets, Unfair Competition

Cases defining the scope of the California Uniform Trade Secrets Act’s (“CUTSA”) preemptive effect have grown in recent years.  Preemption (or “supersession” as the California Supreme Court prefers), increasingly is used by litigants to seek dismissal of non-trade secret causes of action pleaded alongside trade secret claims and which allegedly fall within the scope of… Continue Reading

California Federal Court Ships Fiduciary Duty and Unfair Competition Suit to Delaware Based Upon Forum Selection Clause

Posted in Breach of Fiduciary Duty, Non-Compete Enforceability, Practice & Procedure

By Robert Milligan and Grace Chuchla Using a forum selection clause to transfer a case out of California federal court may have become easier thanks to a recent order from Judge Koh of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.  In her order, Judge Koh granted defendants’ motion to transfer plaintiff’s complaint to… Continue Reading

Ninth Circuit Overturns $172 Million Trade Secrets Award in Rival Toy Makers’ Epic Dispute

Posted in Trade Secrets

By Robert Milligan and Joshua Salinas After more than eight years of litigation and two jury trials over the Bratz doll line, rival toy makers Mattel, Inc. and MGA Entertainment, Inc. may be headed for a rubber match – a third jury trial. Yesterday, a Ninth Circuit panel consisting of Chief Judge Alex Kozinski, Judge… Continue Reading

California Appellate Decision Clarifies Standard for Injunctive Relief Carve-Outs Within California Arbitration Agreements

Posted in Practice & Procedure, Restrictive Covenants, Trade Secrets

By Robert Milligan and Grace Chuchla Arbitration agreements with carve-outs for provisional remedies are again the topic du jour, particularly in California courts which apply a stringent unconscionability analysis to employee arbitration agreements. As we previously discussed on this blog, in October 2012, a federal district court for the Eastern District of California upheld an… Continue Reading

Computer Fraud and Abuse Act Claims Subject to Heightened Pleading Requirements

Posted in Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, Practice & Procedure

In a recent Northern District of California decision, Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong upheld the Ninth Circuit’s ruling in Nosal, and at the same time, held that fraudulent conduct claims under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act are subject to the heightened pleading requirements of Rule 9 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Plaintiff is a… Continue Reading

Tidings of Data Theft and Coal: California Federal Court Holds That Trade Secret Misappropriation Statute Preempts Claim For Misappropriation Of Confidential Non-Trade Secret Data

Posted in Trade Secrets

By Paul Freehling and Jim McNairy There was only coal delivered for California employers in a recent California federal decision in which the Court refused to permit a plaintiff to proceed on a tort theory for the theft of confidential information. In a well-researched and articulate opinion, the federal court for the Northern District of… Continue Reading

Wisconsin Federal Court Finds That Common Law Claims Are Preempted by the California Uniform Trade Secrets Act

Posted in Trade Secrets

By Daniel Hargis The case of Illumination Management Solutions, Inc. v. Ruud pending in the Eastern District of Wisconsin exemplifies the continuing lack of certainty on the scope of California Uniform Trade Secrets Act (“CUTSA”) preemption when the claims potentially subject to preemption concern information that itself may not qualify as a trade secret but… Continue Reading

Former PhoneDog Employee Off the Hook in Closely Watched Trade Secrets Spat

Posted in Trade Secrets

By Jessica Mendelson and Joshua Salinas We previously blogged about the case of PhoneDog v. Kravitz, a Northern District of California case that called into question the ownership of Twitter followers on an employee’s professional account following the employee’s departure from the company. After over a year and a half of litigation, the parties have… Continue Reading

California Federal Court Finds Arbitration Agreement’s Exclusion of Injunctive Relief for Trade Secrets and Unfair Competition Claims Is Not Unconscionable

Posted in Trade Secrets, Unfair Competition

By Joshua Salinas and Grace Chuchla The fight over an employer’s attempt to enforce arbitration agreements in the face of wage and hour class action claims is a common one in the world of labor and employment law. In fact, this is the very question that a federal district court for the Eastern District of… Continue Reading

Video Interview: Discussing Zynga’s Suit Against a Former Employee for Alleged Trade Secrets Theft

Posted in Trade Secrets

Seyfarth Shaw’s Jason Stiehl had the opportunity to speak with Colin O’Keefe of LXBN regarding an ongoing trade secrets suit filed by social games developer Zynga against a key former employee who joined an upstart competitor. In the brief interview,  Jason explains the background of the case and the possible impact of this case on other litigation. Jason… Continue Reading

Zynga Sues Former Employee For Trade Secret Theft While Defending Its Acquisition Of Other Alleged Proprietary Information

Posted in Computer Fraud, Data Theft, Practice & Procedure, Restrictive Covenants, Trade Secrets

On October 12, 2012, Zynga, a major provider of social game services based in San Francisco, filed suit against its former general manager of its highly successful CityVille game, Alan Patmore. Zynga alleges that Patmore, after allegedly refusing to acknowledge his confidentiality obligations, wandered out of the offices of Zynga with 760 computer files, which… Continue Reading

Sports Agent Non-Compete and Trade Secrets Dispute Heats Up in California

Posted in Computer Fraud, Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, Data Theft, Non-Compete Enforceability, Practice & Procedure, Restrictive Covenants, Trade Secrets, Uncategorized, Unfair Competition

By Robert Milligan and Jessica Mendelson With the NBA basketball season almost upon us, a high profile legal battle between an aspiring NBA sports agent and his former agency continues to heat up in Los Angeles federal court. The case involves some interesting non-compete, trade secret, and privacy issues. In April 2012, we first alerted… Continue Reading

Trade Secret Lawsuit Filed Against Heavy Metal Band Regarding “Drum Set Loop Coaster”

Posted in Trade Secrets

On September 20, 2012, a trade secret misappropriation lawsuit was filed against rock star drummer Tommy Lee and his band Mötley Crüe in Los Angeles Superior Court. Plaintiff Howard Scott King alleges in his complaint that in 1991 he developed an idea and concept for a “Tommy Lee Loop Coaster.” The concept consists of a platform… Continue Reading

Complimentary Breakfast Briefing Offered In Orange County and Los Angeles On Trade Secret Protection Best Practices In the Hiring and Departure of Employees

Posted in Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, Data Theft, Espionage, Non-Compete Enforceability, Restrictive Covenants, Trade Secrets, Unfair Competition

Please join Seyfarth Shaw on October 25, 2012 in Costa Mesa, California and on November 1, 2012 at our downtown office in Los Angeles, California for an informative breakfast briefing on best practices when dealing with newly hired or departing employees and the incumbent trade secret and information protection issues. In today’s highly mobile and competitive… Continue Reading