Mealey's Trade Secret : Mealey's : Legal News & Analysis

Mealey's Trade Secret

October 19, 2023
On Eve Of Trademark Trial, New Damages Theory By Ford Fails

DETROIT — An “11th hour” bid by Ford Motor Co. for damages under an unjust enrichment theory in a trademark infringement and trade secret misappropriation dispute with a former business associate failed in Michigan federal court.
October 11, 2023
Mortgage Servicer Accuses Payment Processor Of Misusing Customer Data

DALLAS — A mortgage payment processor misused a mortgage servicer’s customer data when it conducted quality assurance (QA) testing with customers’ nonpublic, personal information while in a live production environment rather than a walled-off testing environment, the mortgage servicer alleges in a complaint filed in a federal court in Texas.
September 18, 2023
Judge Says CGL Insurer Owes Reasonable Defense Costs, Orders Allocation Of Costs

BOSTON — A federal judge in Massachusetts held that a commercial general liability insurer has a duty to pay all reasonable defense costs incurred by its insured in an underlying trade secret lawsuit brought by a competitor but ordered a reasonable allocation of costs between the insured and noninsured parties.
September 14, 2023
DuPont Sues City, Newspapers To Protect Trade Secrets In PFAS Settlement

ROME, Ga. — E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. and its affiliates have sued the city of Rome, Ga., and two newspapers in Georgia state court in an attempt to prevent the publication of the terms of a settlement agreement related to a lawsuit brought by the city against DuPont concerning contamination from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) on grounds that the agreement contains confidential trade secrets.
August 07, 2023
Judge Stays Solar Panel Companies’ UCL, Trade Secret Row Pending Arbitration

SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge stayed a lawsuit brought by a Korean solar panel manufacturer accusing two California-based solar panel companies of violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL), misappropriation of trade secrets and defamation pending the outcome of the parties’ arbitration in Singapore, finding that the parties’ agreement delegates questions of arbitrability to the arbitrators.
July 26, 2023
New Jersey Trade Secret Dispute Over Patent Application Will Proceed

TRENTON, N.J. — A claim by Nasdaq Inc. for violation of a New Jersey trade secret law in connection with the disclosure of an automated securities trading patent does not predate the law’s enactment, a federal judge in New Jersey ruled, denying a defendant’s motion for judgment as a matter of law.
June 14, 2023
Facultative Reinsurance Brokerage Loses TRO Bid In Suit Over Alleged Raid

CHICAGO — Ruling that plaintiffs in a breach of contract and Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA) suit over an alleged “raid” of a facultative reinsurance brokerage demonstrated neither “a likelihood of success on the merits” nor that they would be irreparably harmed without a temporary restraining order (TRO), an Illinois federal judge denied their TRO bid.
June 13, 2023
AI Marketing Company Sues AI Ad Firm For Contract, Trade Secret Violations

SAN ANTONIO — An artificial intelligence (AI) marketing firm filed suit against a company with which it had a business agreement, telling a Texas federal court that the company “lured [it] into providing access to its platform and proprietary assets” for the purpose of misappropriating them.
June 09, 2023
TRO Bid Denied In Suit Over Alleged Raid On Facultative Reinsurance Group

CHICAGO — An Illinois federal judge denied a motion for a temporary restraining order (TRO) in a suit asserting claims including breach of contract and violation of the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA) regarding an alleged “raid” of a facultative reinsurance group.
May 30, 2023
Judge Denies Certified Question, Says Parties Must Unwind AI Merger Software Sale

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A company may rescind the sale of artificial intelligence software that analyzes mergers, acquisitions and other investments after prevailing on a fraudulent inducement claim, a federal judge in Ohio said after declining to certify a question to the Ohio Supreme Court.
May 26, 2023
Parties Dispute TRO Bid In Suit Over Alleged Raid On Facultative Reinsurance Group

CHICAGO — Plaintiffs who allege that a rival used a “well-established Playbook” to conduct an unlawful raid of their facultative reinsurance group asked an Illinois federal court to issue a temporary restraining order (TRO), and the defendants countered that “[t]he only emergency is likely [the plaintiffs’] desire to unlawfully stifle competition.”
April 28, 2023
Judge Dismisses UCL Counterclaim In Fake Meat Makers’ Patent Dispute

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A California federal judge granted a motion to dismiss multiple counterclaims including for violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) brought by a meat substitute maker against a rival company after finding the state law civil counterclaims based on the same basic facts as its claims for misappropriation of trade secrets in violation of the California Uniform Trade Secret Act (CUTSA) and therefore preempted.
April 24, 2023
Oil Company Says Former CFO Stole Trade Secrets To Form Competing Firm

DALLAS — An oil and gas company sued a competitor in Texas federal court contending that it was formed when former employees stole trade secrets to establish the company, which led to unjust enrichment and other actions that “crippled” the plaintiff by “unfairly misappropriating the years of time and millions of dollars that [the plaintiff] spent building its investor network and its business.”
April 24, 2023
After Settlement Report, Reinsurance Broker Dismisses ‘Coordinated Raid’ Cases

Reinsurance broker Guy Carpenter & Company LLC has voluntarily dismissed related suits in Texas and New York federal courts over what it had alleged was a “coordinated raid” that created “a mirror image business.”
April 19, 2023
In Minnesota Trademark Row, Judge Sanctions ‘Contumacious’ Conduct

MINNEAPOLIS — A trademark infringement and dilution plaintiff’s request for sanctions against a former licensee and his company was granted April 18 by a federal judge in Minnesota, who said the defendants “contumacious, repeated and dilatory conduct” warrants entry of a default judgment.
April 12, 2023
Copyright, Trade Secret, Lanham Act Case Against TikTok To Remain In Texas

WACO, Texas — Efforts by TikTok Inc. and others to transfer copyright infringement, trade secret and false advertising claims leveled against them to California federal court failed April 11, when a Texas federal magistrate judge said the defendants failed to show that a different venue would clearly be more convenient.
April 06, 2023
Judge Says Factual Dispute Over Trade Secrets Exists In Fracking Chemicals Case

DENVER — A federal judge in Colorado has partially dismissed a trade secrets lawsuit involving a company that sells chemicals to hydraulic fracturing operators, ruling that there is a factual dispute over whether the information in question is a protected trade secret.
March 20, 2023
Korean Solar Panel Maker Accuses Calif. Companies Of UCL, Trade Secrets Violations

SAN FRANCISCO — A Korean solar panel manufacturer filed suit in California federal court accusing two California-based solar panel companies of violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and defamation, arguing that the court has jurisdiction despite a pending arbitration between the parties in Singapore because it says the California companies “initiated the Arbitration . . . to achieve the conspiratorial goal” of misappropriating its trade secrets for advanced solar technology and replacing it with cheaper suppliers.
March 14, 2023
Motion To Strike Testimony Of Court-Appointed Code Expert Denied In Copyright Case

LOS ANGELES — A federal judge in California denied a motion to exclude the report of the court-appointed source code expert in a copyright infringement and trade secret dispute, noting that the plaintiffs did not challenge the expert’s qualifications and, in fact, initially proposed him as an expert and rejecting their argument that his report is biased.
March 13, 2023
Settlement Reported In Reinsurance Broker’s Suit Over ‘Coordinated Raid’

Related suits in Texas and New York federal courts over what reinsurance broker Guy Carpenter & Company LLC alleged was a “coordinated raid” that created “a mirror image business” have been resolved via a confidential settlement agreement, the parties say in joint notices also seeking temporary stays.
March 09, 2023
Cosmetics Trade Secrets Dispute Must Be Arbitrated In Belgium, Judge Says

FORT WORTH, Texas — A Texas federal judge on March 8 granted a motion by two U.S. subsidiaries of a Swiss pharmaceutical company to dismiss a trade secrets lawsuit brought against them by a U.K. company based on forum non conveniens, finding that a dispute over whether the subsidiaries improperly sought Food and Drug Administration approval for a cosmetic product must be resolved by arbitration in Switzerland.
February 13, 2023
Judge Dismisses Nicotine Pouch Makers’ Settled Trade Secrets Row

LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge entered an order granting a joint stipulation by Swedish and American companies involved in a trade secrets and patent dispute over the manufacturing and selling of nicotine pouches to voluntarily dismiss two pending lawsuits between them with prejudice, with each party agreeing to bear its own attorney fees and costs.
February 07, 2023
Pfizer Must Produce FBI Communications In Trade Secret Lawsuit

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Concluding that Pfizer Inc. did not establish that email and text communications between it and the Federal Bureau of Investigation were protected by either the attorney-client privilege or the work product doctrine, a Connecticut federal judge granted a motion to compel discovery of those documents to the defendants in a trade secret misappropriation lawsuit over the development of a diabetes treatment.
January 31, 2023
Rival Nicotine Pouch Makers Settle Trade Secrets Dispute

LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge recently wrote in a minute entry that two lawsuits pertaining to a trade secrets and patent dispute over the manufacturing and selling of nicotine pouches are resolved after the Swedish and American companies involved informed the court during a final pretrial conference that they have resolved all of their remaining disputes over the alleged misuse of trade secrets.
January 03, 2023
Copyright, Trademark Claims Over Fudge Recipe Tossed In Pennsylvania

PITTSBURGH — A federal magistrate judge in Pennsylvania ruled that although copyright and trademark infringement allegations by a fudge maker against his former wife fail, genuine issues of material fact preclude summary judgment on the question of whether reasonable measures were taken to protect a disputed fudge recipe.