Ed. Note: This is the third in a series of articles taken from Gavin Parsons' CLE presentation for the North Carolina Bar Association's Antitrust and Complex Business Dispute CLE Program presented on Thursday, January 30,...more
Though litigants routinely enter into stipulated protective orders in the course of discovery that may involve sensitive company information (or even trade secrets), a recent ruling is a cautionary tale on the potential...more
Trade secret litigation presents a variety of procedural and practical complexities at every stage of the proceeding. One of the most important—yet often overlooked—issues in these cases can be summarized by the following...more
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed a decision declining to seal information in an amended complaint where the defendant failed to prove that the information was a trade secret. DePuy Synthes Products,...more
On December 7, 2020, United States District Court Judge Jed S. Rakoff (S.D.N.Y.) denied Plaintiff SIMO Holdings Inc.’s (“SIMO”) motion to use four confidential documents in a related trade secret dispute pending in Shenzhen,...more
Update: On September 24, 2021, the Federal Court of Appeal allowed the Minister’s appeal of this decision and remitted the matter to the Federal Court for redetermination of several issues: Canada (Health) v Elanco Canada...more
Last week, multinational mining giant Rio Tinto asked a federal court in Manhattan to shield its document disclosures to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) from the public eye....more
Trade secrets derive their commercial value from being secret. When trade secrets are misappropriated, litigation may be necessary to stop a competitor from exploiting them in the marketplace. Yet litigating...more
Earlier this month, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that a party in litigation seeking to prevent responsive discoverable information from disclosure under a protective order must first demonstrate that the information in...more
The heavy burden of persuading the Commercial Division of New York State Supreme Court to seal court records containing sensitive business information could be eased under a proposed new rule. In releasing the new rule for...more
We wrote here previously regarding the Sixth Circuit’s decision in Shane Group v. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan vacating a class action settlement because the district court improperly refused to unseal the parties’...more
Last Friday (May 20), the Texas Supreme Court delivered its first opinion interpreting the Texas Uniform Trade Secret Act. M-I Swaco, an oilfield services company, alleged that a former employee and his current employer,...more
We have previously reported about protecting trade secrets from disclosure after a FOIA request. There is something to be said for immediate action and intervening to protect your trade secrets, but sometimes that just isn’t...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit vacated an order modifying a protective order to allow the use of confidential discovery material in foreign litigation, explaining that courts facing such questions must...more
Employee's Inability To Work For A Particular Supervisor Does Not Constitute A "Disability" - Higgins-Williams v. Sutter Med. Found., 237 Cal. App. 4th 78 (2015) - Michaelin Higgins-Williams worked as a clinical...more
Free-to-play games are all the rage these days. Many people while away their days playing Angry Birds, or Words with Friends before going home to watch Monday Night Football. Nerds — and, increasingly, “normal people” — do...more