Way back in the 1980’s, there was a very simple way to keep computer information from being stolen. Every disk containing confidential information was locked in a Sargent and Greenleaf safe.
Of course, even then, there were problems: 22,000 or so 3.5 inch “microfloppy” disks hold the same amount of data as a 32 GB thumb drive can hold today.
Continue Reading Cybersecurity: Coming to an Office Near You
Most people stop taking math in high school. Geometry was often the culprit that either made someone enjoy solving problems involving Greek letters or become completely disinterested. All those arcs and triangles…how does any of that apply to life as an attorney?
Well, here comes another geometry lesson: the Venn Diagram of intellectual property (IP), once thought to have only
Continue Reading Pythagoras and the Geometry of Intellectual Property: Where Do Trade Secrets Fit In?
(N.B.: Neither the author, this article, nor this blog intends to make, nor makes, any comments for or against the legalization of marijuana in any jurisdiction.)
What happens when you mix animal affection with a political issue? A Constitutional Convention? Tax dollars for pet shelters? Would you believe…trade secret litigation?
People love their pets. There are doggie
Continue Reading High Times in Trade Secrets
It isn’t easy to change the mindset of a capitalistic society. Although the science of ecology dates back more than 150 years and has its roots in ancient Greece, society as a whole has only become more environmentally aware in the last 40 some years. It remains a struggle to make people aware that, really, we are not the only
Continue Reading Not Easy Being Green: Trade Secret Holders May Be Singing the Blues Over Green Chemistry
You arrive home from another long day at the office, have some dinner, start to catch up on the day’s news on the couch, and slowly doze off…
…you are back in the office, and one of your employees comes to you with an idea that will make your company boatloads of money. You call your attorney and tell him
Continue Reading Patent and Trade Secret Protection: Turning Nightmares into Sweet Dreams
With the ever-increasing need to maintain communications with customers and your employees, mobile phones have become a requirement for business people. Spanish telecommunications company Geeksphone is targeting the business market with Blackphone, the first mobile phone that encrypts data transmissions. No one would argue against the value of increased wireless data security, but do CIA-style cellular phones really provide enough
Continue Reading Covert Cellular: Enough Protection for Trade Secrets?
Zealous advocacy, copious use of Latin, and literary devices advantageously applied to attack our adversaries’ arguments. These are the cornerstones of American legal representation.
These tools are part of the modus operandi of every lawyer. This article may use dead language and assonance as running themes, but some lawyers take zealous advocacy ad infinitum. Such attorneys are rarely even
Continue Reading The Two Billion Dollar Zhu Zhu Pet, Sold for $5k: Puffing in Trade Secret Misappropriation Pleadings May be Perilous
Why spend millions of dollars employing a bunch of bright, talented employees to develop your business when you can just hire a worker from your rival to steal all their research? As on every test you took in school, isn’t getting the right answer more important than figuring out how to solve the problem?
Competition for business is fierce. Small
Continue Reading Global Business 101: Hire Your Competitor as a “Consultant”
Spell check features in word processing programs sent correction fluid the way of the buggy whip. Walter Liew and Robert Maegerle, however, saw a $28 million dollar payout to sell the secrets to, among other things, typewriter correction fluid. It is doubtful that they can “white out” the bars of their new prison cells, though.
Liew, a California engineering consultant,
Continue Reading Chinese Espionage Latest Target: Correction Fluid