In recent years, there has been a noticeable uptick in trade secret litigation, signaling a shift in how businesses safeguard their valuable intellectual property...
Thursday, March 21, 2024
Trade Secret Cases On the Rise
In recent years, there has been a noticeable uptick in trade secret litigation, signaling a shift in how businesses safeguard their valuable intellectual property...
Wednesday, November 15, 2023
Why You Really Need a Technical Information Security Consultant
by R. Mark Halligan
For years, there has been a debate whether “confidential” information is analogous to a “trade secret.” It is not. Information is either protected as a “trade secret” or not protected as a “trade secret.” Any other characterization of “confidential” information undermines the protection of trade secret assets and interferes with lawful and fair business competition.
There is no such thing as non-trade secret “confidential” information.
There is no such thing as “confidential” information that does not rise to the level of a trade secret.
There is no middle ground: Either the information is a “trade secret” (and protectable) or not a trade secret (and not protectable).
A “trade secret” is an intellectual property asset that requires reasonable measures to protect the information as a “trade secret” and proof that such information derives an actual or potential economic advantage from the secrecy of the information. more
Wednesday, July 12, 2023
Alert: Not All Documents Labeled Confidential Actually Are
As Texas courts have noted, and Liquid Networx cited in its motion for directed verdict, affixing a confidentiality label to a document does not necessarily make the information within a trade secret. See Providence Title Co. v. Truly Title, Inc., 547 F. Supp 3d 585, 609 (E.D. Tex. 2021) (“[B]usiness information is not necessarily a trade secret simply because it is confidential.”)...
It is important to always consider the nature of the document, how it was created, what value comes from keeping it confidential, what efforts are made to keep it from third parties, and what safeguards are used when it is disseminated to third parties, in analyzing trade secrets. more
Saturday, November 26, 2022
Trade Secret Litigation 101
Below, we will explore some of the key elements of trade secret litigation, its scope and magnitude, distinctions between trade secrets and other types of intellectual property, as well as several other important considerations... more
Thursday, June 2, 2022
What You Should Know About Trade Secrets
Part I - Introductory Session
Partners Melanie Seelig and Mauricio Uribe kicked off a two-part, comprehensive discussion on trade secrets. The presentation served as an introduction to the topic and provided more general information.
View live presentation: Video Link
View on SlideShare: Knobbe Martens Webinar Series for Start-ups: What You Should Know About Trade Secrets - Part I
Part II - Detailed Discussion
Partners Melanie Seelig and Mauricio Uribe continued the two-part, comprehensive discussion on trade secrets. The presentation focused on a more detailed exploration of the topic and strategic implications for various scenarios.
View live presentation: Video Link
View on SlideShare: Knobbe Martens Webinar Series for Start-ups: What You Should Know About Trade Secrets - Part II
View and download the full presentation below. Knobbe Martens Webinar Series for Start-ups: What You Should Know About Trade Secrets - Part I and II
View more webinars on our Vimeo home page: Knobbe Martens on Vimeo
View more Knobbe Martens slide presentations here.
Saturday, March 12, 2022
Aerospace Company Accuses California Aviation Start-Up of Stealing Trade Secrets
The Elma company called the data allegedly stolen by a former employee "breathtaking in its scope."
Moog, in a federal lawsuit filed this week in Buffalo, said a software engineer who quit the company's Los Angeles-area office in December took more than 136,000 digital files related to flight control software to her new employer, Skyryse, a six-year-old startup.
Moog accuses Misook Kim, a former employee, of copying to an external hard drive files that contained the source code of Moog's proprietary software programs, which it said took more than 15 years to develop by dozens of Moog engineers at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars.
Moog said it is not aware of any other instance where a Moog employee copied to an external hard drive even a fraction of the data it said Kim did in November.
According to the lawsuit, "What Kim did is entirely without precedent at Moog." more
Tuesday, October 5, 2021
Weird, Unusual & Interesting - Spy News Clickbait
Venice, Italy - The city’s leaders are acquiring the cellphone data of unwitting
tourists and using hundreds of surveillance cameras to monitor visitors
and prevent crowding. Next summer, they plan to install long-debated
gates at key entry points; visitors coming only for the day will have to
book ahead and pay a fee to enter. If too many people want to come,
some will be turned away. more
Banksy's Spy Booth Brick + NFT Auction Crashes Servers with Overwhelmingly Heavy Web Traffic more
Australia - An ABC News drone took the brunt of the bite force when a saltwater crocodile leapt up and plucked it from mid-air while filming in Darwin. video
Top 9 Surveillance Videos of the Week video
How Jamie Spears Spied on Britney Spears Through iCloud - A security firm spied on Britney Spears through her iCloud account. Here's how to figure out if someone is doing that to you, and how to stop it. more & more & more & bugsweep
ShadowDragon: Inside the Social Media Surveillance Software That Can Watch Your Every Move - The tool is the product of a growing industry whose work is usually kept from the public and utilized by police. more & more
Florida - New Law – Corporate Espionage (HB 1523): Sponsored by Republican Rep. Mike Beltran, the new law creates the crime of “trafficking in trade secrets” and enhances criminal penalties under certain circumstances. If the trafficking of trade secrets benefits a foreign government or company, the offense is now a first-degree felony. more
Florida - Surveillance Drone Assists in Search for Brian Laundrie more
Security researchers think Amazon's Astro bot isn't safe. more
Friday, July 2, 2021
Don't Own the Trade Secret But Still Want to Sue for Misappropriation?
You may be able to bring a misappropriation of trade secrets claim even if you do not actually own the misappropriated trade secret. A growing number of federal cases indicate ownership of a trade secret may not be required in order for a plaintiff to sue for misappropriation; possession alone may be enough to confer standing.
In Advanced Fluid Systems, Inc. v. Huber, the Third Circuit affirmed a district court ruling holding that a plaintiff suing for misappropriation under the Pennsylvania Uniform Trade Secrets Act (“PUTSA”) need only demonstrate lawful possession of the trade secret at issue, and not legal ownership, to maintain a claim. There, Advanced Fluid Systems (“AFS”), a designer and installer of hydraulic systems, filed suit against defendants alleging they had conspired to misappropriate AFS trade secret information to divert business to a competitor.
In a twenty-six page opinion, the Court concluded that fee simple ownership of a trade secret is not a prerequisite to recover for its misappropriation. more
Monday, May 18, 2020
Sir Frederick Barclay's Nephew 'Caught with Bugging Device' at Ritz Hotel
Sir Frederick, 85, and his daughter Amanda are suing three of Sir David Barclay's sons for invasion of privacy.
They claim the surveillance gave the men commercial advantage and they sold the Ritz for half its market value.
The Barclay brothers' businesses include the Telegraph Media Group, the online retailer Very Group, the delivery business Yodel, and - at the time of the bugging - the Ritz hotel in London.
Sir Frederick, the elder twin by 10 minutes, and his daughter Amanda are suing Sir David Barclay's sons - Alistair, Aidan and Howard, Aidan's son Andrew, and Philip Peters, a board director of the Barclay group for invasion of privacy, breach of confidence and data protection laws.
The claim stems from a falling out between the children of the famously private twins...
The CCTV footage allegedly shows Alistair Barclay handling a bugging device at the Ritz hotel on 13 January this year. The recording shows Mr Barclay inserting a plug adaptor, which is claimed to contain a listening device, into a socket.
In court documents lodged by Sir Frederick and Amanda Barclay, it is claimed the bug - which was placed in the hotel's conservatory where Sir Frederick liked to conduct business meetings and smoke cigars - captured more than 1,000 separate conversations amounting to some 94 hours of recordings.
The pair claim the recordings amount to "commercial espionage on a vast scale"....
Voice Activated Wireless GSM Spy Bug SIM Mains 2 Way Adapter Plug Doubler Surveillance Adaptor |
Second bug
It is also claimed a separate Wi-Fi bug was supplied by private investigation firm Quest Global. Its chairman is former Metropolitan Police commissioner Lord Stevens.
The claimants' documents say that Quest invoiced for 405 hours of listening and transcribing.
The recordings, it is alleged, captured "private, confidential, personal and Sir Frederick's privileged conversations with his lawyers, and with his daughter's trustees, bankers and businesspeople". more
Oddly, there is no mention of the video bug which recorded the incident. It does however make the nephew eligible for our Darwin Award for capturing himself with his own bug. ~Kevin
Monday, May 4, 2020
Trade Secret Protection in a Nutshell
Trade Secret Law in a Nutshell (book) |
- The information is actually secret,
- the business has taken "reasonable measures" to keep it so,
- and the information has "independent economic value" because it's unknown to others who could profit from it.
Thursday, April 16, 2020
Gad Zoox - Tesla Settles Trade Secret Theft Law Suit
Tesla lawyers filed a lawsuit in March last year against four former employees and Zoox, alleging the employees stole proprietary information and trade secrets for developing warehousing, logistics and inventory control operations.
Zoox said the settlement required it to pay Tesla an undisclosed amount and undergo an audit to ensure that none of its employees had retained or are using Tesla's confidential information. more
Friday, February 14, 2020
Spy Fail: Alleged Huawei Spy Caught Disguised as 'Weihua' Employee
That's apparently all one Huawei employee spy did to disguise himself during a late-night attempt to steal technology from a U.S. competitor.
Needless to say, it wasn't exactly successful.
This hilarious new detail emerged as part of the United States government's indictment of the Chinese firm on charges of racketeering and conspiracy to steal trade secrets. The indictment lays out how the company sought to steal the intellectual property of six different U.S. tech companies — though not every attempt was particularly sophisticated. more
Thursday, February 6, 2020
Book: Chinese Communist Espionage: An Intelligence Primer
Chinese espionage hinges on a sophisticated network of spies focused on state-sponsored tech theft, according to a new book that dispels outdated theories of how Beijing collects intelligence around the world.
Why it matters: Old tropes cast all ethnic Chinese as potential amateur spies, a belief which has led to racial profiling. In reality, China's intelligence agencies employ highly trained professionals who operate much like spies from any other country.
Details: Published late last year by the Naval Institute Press, doubles as an explainer of how Chinese espionage works and as a brief encyclopedia of key figures.
- The book's authors are Peter Mattis, a former CIA counterintelligence analyst, and Matthew Brazil, a former US Army officer and diplomat.
- Their main message: That Chinese espionage is neither mysterious nor totally different than that practiced by other nations. more
Friday, October 25, 2019
Espionage Weekend Movie: "The Current War"
It's a power struggle, both literal and societal, with Benedict Cumberbatch as inventor Thomas Edison on one side, Michael Shannon as industrialist George Westinghouse on the other, Nicholas Hoult as eccentric visionary Nikola Tesla in the middle and the future of electricity in America hanging in the balance.
In theaters Friday, Oct. 25, the film is a tale of innovation advanced via moral compromise. There are dead animals, corporate espionage, even the invention of the electric chair all deployed in the battle to determine whether Edison's direct current or Westinghouse's alternating current would light up the nation.
It's a story rife with tragedy and squandered potential. more
Thursday, October 17, 2019
Massive Corporate Espionage Attack: 'One million pages stolen'
CSL’s allegations are expected to reverberate through the highly competitive global drug making industry where trade secrets are the most prized possession of the companies. more
It's never this obvious. |
Any pharmaceutical company without:
- a robust Information Security Policy,
- Recording in the Workplace Policy,
- IT Compliance and Surveillance program,
- regularly scheduled Technical Surveillance Countermeasures (TSCM) inspections (with an Information Security Survey component)
CSL had protection measures in place. Thus, this discovery, and recovery. ~Kevin
Tuesday, October 1, 2019
U.S. Tour Guide Accused as Spy for China's Security Service
The U.S. arrested a California man accused of spying for China’s security service while working as a tour guide in the San Francisco area. U.S. agents secretly monitored drop-offs of packages at a hotel in Newark, California, that were traced to Peng, according to the complaint.
China’s Ministry of State Security schemed “to use an American citizen to remove classified security information to the PRC,” U.S. Attorney David Anderson said at a press conference.
Peng’s activities for the company where he worked, U.S. Tour and Travel, “went far beyond innocent sight-seeing,” Anderson said. more
Wednesday, July 10, 2019
Supreme Court Relaxes the Confidentiality Standard... but you have to do your part!
The Supreme Court in Food Marketing Institute v. Argus Leader Media, No. 18-481 (U.S. June 24, 2019) recently relaxed the standard for withholding confidential information under Exemption 4 of the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”)—a major win for contractors that regularly submit sensitive business information to the government...
To take full advantage of the Court’s holding, companies doing business with the government should keep in mind the following practical tips:
- Carefully document all efforts to keep information private.* This includes updating internal policies on maintaining the confidentiality of company records, increasing security features limiting access to certain sensitive data, and providing additional training to employees on how to properly handle confidential business information.
- In submissions to the government, clearly indicate which information is to be kept confidential. This includes marking the data with a protective legend identifying it as subject to Exemption 4 protection. Be aware that certain statutes and regulations may require specific language to be used.
- To the extent possible, obtain written assurances from the agency that the information will be kept confidential and will not be released to third parties absent the contractor’s consent. Contractors may also be able to negotiate contractual provisions protecting the data to be submitted to the government. more
Killed for Spying: The Story of the First Factory
Lombe wished to figure out how the Piedmontese spun strong yarn from silkworm silk. Divulging such secrets was illegal, so Lombe snuck into a workshop after dark, sketching the spinning machines by candlelight. In 1717, he took those sketches to Derby in the heart of England.
Local legend has it that the Italians took a terrible revenge on Lombe, sending a woman to assassinate him.
Whatever the truth of that, he died suddenly at the age of 29, just a few years after his Piedmont adventure. more
Monday, July 8, 2019
Porcelain — An Industrial Espionage Story
Another remarkable use for porcelain is the lithophane, a sheet of porcelain so thin as to be translucent, with artwork etched into it. The lithophane is thin enough that the art can only be seen when backlit, but just thick enough that the image can have depth. Lithophanes began to appear in several parts of Europe in the 1820s, but they’re believed to have originated in China a millennia earlier during the Tang Dynasty. Later Ming Dynasty scholars wrote of Tang bowls “as thin as paper” that included secret images.
Wednesday, June 19, 2019
Washington, DC and The Running of the Spies
That is the scene on a typical weekday in the world’s most powerful city — whose business revolves around secret meetings, information and documents. Woven into that orderly bedlam are sophisticated networks of foreign nationals whose sole purpose is to steal secrets.
They are spies.
According to the International Spy Museum in D.C., an educational and historical center of U.S. intelligence documentation and artifacts, there are “more than 10,000 spies in Washington.”
While there may be some quibbling about the actual numbers, the FBI agrees with the premise.
“It’s unprecedented — the threat from our foreign adversaries, specifically China on the economic espionage and the espionage front,” said Brian Dugan, Assistant Special Agent in Charge for Counterintelligence with the FBI’s Washington Field Office.
As this unparalleled wave of international espionage, aided by technology, explodes in D.C., the variety of spies has diversified, as well.
“A spy is nondescript. A spy is going to be someone that’s going to be a student in school, a visiting professor, your neighbor. It could be a colleague or someone that shares the soccer field with you,” Dugan said. more