IP Blog
Trade Secrets
Trade Secret Misappropriation Claim Dismissed Where Plaintiff Failed to Prove Damage
An element of a claim of trade secret misappropriation is that the theft has caused damage, a lesson reinforced by the defendant’s successful motion for summary judgment in 3PD, Inc. v. U.S. Transport Corp., Case No.: GJH-13-2438 (D. Md. July 9, 2015). Even if trade secrets were wrongly taken by the defendant, the plaintiff failed to demonstrate actual damages under...
Internal Website Can Be a Trade Secret
Allegations that a customer database and an inter-office call center website were trade secrets survived a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss in Capital Meats, Inc. v. The Meat Shoppe, LLC, Civil No. JFM-15-212 (D. Md. July 9, 2015). The court ruled that the plaintiff had stated a plausible claim under the Maryland Uniform Trade Secrets Act (“MUTSA”), thus providing a...
Pleading Trade Secret Misappropriation Requires Detail, Even If Not All Support Needed for the Plaintiff to Ultimately Prevail
In Vesta Corp. v. Amdocs Mgmt., No. 3:14-cv-1142-HZ (D. Or. Jan. 13, 2015), the plaintiff survived a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss a claim of alleged trade secret misappropriation. The plaintiff alleged that the defendant stole its confidential information during a joint development effort, and used that information to develop a competing product. Both the plaintiff and defendant provided services...
Trade Secret Protection Requires Steps to Protect Trade Secrets
A defendant who misappropriated a plaintiff’s designs could not be liable for trade secret misappropriation no matter how nefarious the defendant’s conduct, where the plaintiff had not taken reasonable steps to protect prototypes embodying the designs. Accordingly, in Direct Technologies, LLC v. Electronic Arts, Inc., No. SACV 10-1336 AG (PJWx) (C.D. Cal. Aug. 4, 2014), the court granted summary judgment...
Reasonable Steps Protect Software Trade Secrets
A software owner must take steps to preserve trade secrets in software, but those steps need only be reasonable, rather than including every conceivable action. That is the lesson from PQ Labs, Inc. v. Qi, No. 12-0450 CW (N.D. Cal., Jan 29, 2014), denying the defendants summary judgment on the plaintiff’s claim brought under the California Uniform Trade Secrets Act...
Jury Award for Software Trade Secrets Theft Affirmed by Fifth Circuit
Wellogix sued Accenture (and other parties) for misappropriating trade secrets related to software that helped manage the process of constructing an oil well. A jury awarded $26.2 million in compensatory damages, and $68.2 million in punitive damages, the punitive award having subsequently been reduced to $18.2 million by a remittitur. On appeal, the Fifth Circuit affirmed the jury’s verdict that...
When Does Internet Use Create Personal Jurisdiction?
A defendant’s use of computers in Canada to access servers in Connecticut was sufficient to give rise to personal jurisdiction in Connecticut, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals has held. MacDermid, Inc. v. Deiter, No. 11-5388-cv (2nd Cir. Dec. 26, 2012). A district court had held that the defendant’s conduct was not covered under Connecticut’s long arm statute. The Second...
Patent Applications and Stolen Trade Secrets
The court in VasoNova, Inc. v. Grunwald, No. C 12-02422 WHA (N.D. Cal. Sept. 18, 2012), addressed the classic scenario of a departing employee allegedly stealing trade secrets. In a not wholly unusual twist, the departing employee, Grunwald, filed patent applications containing the alleged trade secrets. Grunwald then sold the technology, including the patent applications, to a third-party, Bard Access...
Plaintiff Must Identify Software Trade Secrets
Here is a reminder that plaintiffs have an obligation to identify allegedly stolen trade secrets. In MSCI, Inc. v. Jacob, 945 N.Y.S.2d 863 (April 20, 2012), a New York state court held that the plaintiffs were required to affirmatively identify features of their software that included trade secrets, rather than simply identify aspects of the software that did not include...
Plaintiff Goes First In Trade Secrets Discovery
A classic tension in trade secrets cases lies between plaintiffs’ reluctance to identify their trade secrets and defendants’ contentions that plaintiffs will tailor their accusations of trade secrets theft to match information produced by the defendants. Acknowledging this tension, a Nevada magistrate judge has held that a plaintiff had not identified allegedly stolen trade secrets with sufficient particularity, and that...