MEME_Cal Pecs eBookSeyfarth Shaw LLP has released its 2017 Edition of Cal-Peculiarities: How California Employment Law Is Different. Included within the publication is an overview of how California law is different in the areas of restrictive covenants , trade secrets, and computer fraud. For example, highlights include:

  • But for a narrow exception, new law provides that a California employer cannot


Continue Reading Can You Say P-e-c-u-l-i-a-r-i-t-i-e-s? Seyfarth’s Cal-Peculiarities Guide Is Here Highlighting Quirks in California Restrictive Covenant and Trade Secret Law

webinarWe are pleased to announce the webinar “Proving-Up Trade Secret Misappropriation: Best Practices and Tales from the Trenches” is now available as a webinar recording.

In Seyfarth’s final installment in the 2016 Trade Secrets Webinar Series, James McNairy and Justin Beyer, joined by computer forensics expert Jim Vaughn of iDiscovery Solutions, focused on best practices for assembling the evidence
Continue Reading Webinar Recap! Proving-Up Trade Secret Misappropriation: Best Practices and Tales from the Trenches

webinarOn Tuesday, December 13, at 12:00 p.m. Central, Seyfarth attorneys, James McNairy and Justin Beyer, joined by computer forensics expert Jim Vaughn of iDiscovery Solutions, will present the final installment of the 2016 Trade Secrets Webinar Series. This program will provide attendees with best practices for assembling the evidence most often needed to prosecute a claim for misappropriation of trade
Continue Reading Upcoming Webinar: Proving-Up Trade Secret Misappropriation: Best Practices and Tales from the Trenches

shutterstock_150165167On September 25, California Governor Jerry Brown signed into law Senate Bill 1241. SB 1241, effective January 1, 2017, adds Section 925 to the Labor Code to restrain the ability of employers to require employees to litigate or arbitrate employment disputes (1) outside of California or (2) under the laws of another state. The only exception is where the employee was individually represented by a lawyer in negotiating an employment contract.

For companies with headquarters outside of California and employees who work and reside in California, this assault on the freedom of contract is not welcome news. Particularly affected are companies that include forum-selection clauses in contracts with California employees that include non-competition or customer non-solicit provisions. Once SB 1241 becomes effective, it may foreclose—in all but the most unusual circumstances—the sometimes successful strategy of enforcing a non-competition agreement against a California resident through litigation in another state.
Continue Reading New California Law May Preclude Use of Forum-Selection Clauses to Enforce Non-Compete Agreements in Employment Contracts

Cross Posted from California Peculiarities.

Seyfarth Synopsis:  Protecting trade secrets from employee theft requires more than using an NDA when onboarding employees. If businesses want to protect confidential information, they need a cradle-to-grave approach, reiterating employee obligations regularly, including during exit interviews. (Yes, you need to do exit interviews!)

Headline stories in intellectual property theft tend to involve foreign
Continue Reading We Traced The Trade Secret Leak … It’s Coming From Inside The Business

shutterstock_236620168On July 12, 2016, the Ninth Circuit filed its published opinion in Facebook, Inc. v. Power Ventures, Inc., et al., Case No. 13-17154 (“Power Ventures”).  Power Ventures is the latest in a series of decisions from the Ninth Circuit relating to the type of activities potentially giving rise to liability under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act
Continue Reading Facebook, Inc. v. Power Ventures, Inc.: Shotgun-Toting Borrowers of Jewelry From Bank Safe Deposit Boxes and the CFAA. Wait. What?

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By Gary Glaser, James McNairy and Marc Jacobs

We are pleased to announce the webinar “Trade Secrets, Restrictive Covenants and the NLRB: Can They Peacefully Coexist?” is now available as a podcast and webinar recording.

In Seyfarth’s fifth installment of its 2016 Trade Secrets Webinar series, attorneys Jim McNairy and Marc Jacobs conveyed strategies and best practices to
Continue Reading Webinar Recap! Trade Secrets, Restrictive Covenants and the NLRB: Can They Peacefully Coexist?

shutterstock_325101959When is a microscope not needed? When the problem one is looking at is big as an elephant, not small as an amoeba.

Nion, an electron microscope manufacturer, contracted with Gatan, a spectrometer manufacturer, to use Gatan’s spectrometers in Nion’s microscopes. The contract contained both confidentiality and non-compete clauses. When Gatan learned that Nion had sold other parties microscopes that
Continue Reading No Microscope Needed to See Why This Non-Compete Is Unenforceable

WebinarRecent National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) law in the area of employee handbooks and policies brings new challenges for employers as to how they can best protect their trade secrets and enforce restrictive covenants in their employment agreements without running afoul of the National Labor Relations Act.

On Tuesday, May 10 at 12:00 p.m. Central, Seyfarth attorneys Gary Glaser,
Continue Reading Upcoming Webinar: Restrictive Covenants and the NLRB: Can They Peacefully Coexist?

shutterstock_183065225We are pleased to announce the webinar “How and Why California is Different When it Comes to Trade Secrets and Non-Competes ” is now available as a podcast and webinar recording.

In Seyfarth’s fifth installment of its 2015 Trade Secrets Webinar series, Seyfarth attorneys focused on recent legal developments in California trade secret and non-compete law and how it
Continue Reading Webinar Recap! How and Why California is Different When it Comes to Trade Secrets and Non-Competes