Mark A. Romeo

Blogs: Government Contracts Legal Forum, Trade Secrets Trends

Latest Articles

Is California Moving to Restrict Restrictive Covenants?

By Mark A. Romeo, Astor Heaven & Charlie Kazemzadeh

February 1, 2019

A California federal court recently called into question the enforceability of employee non-solicitation clauses within the state. In Barker v. Insight Global, LLC, et al., Case No. 5:16-cv-07186-BLF, the United States District Court for the Northern District of California reconsidered its position regarding the legality of an employee non-solicitation clause in plaintiff’s employment agreement, reversing its decision to dismiss a putative class action claim for failure to state a claim. Plaintiff Jonathan Barker, a former…

Trade Secrets Trends

Diversity is Important – But Is It A Trade Secret?

By Helen Osun & Mark A. Romeo

March 5, 2018

On January 14, 2018, IBM’s Chief Diversity Officer resigned to go work for Microsoft in the same role. The caveat: she had a twelve month non-compete clause. On February 12, 2018, IBM filed a lawsuit to enjoin its former diversity officer to honor her non-compete agreement with IBM and to recover damages. The suit, filed in Southern District New York court, alleges that the IBM non-compete agreement that the defendant signed has a New York federal…

Trade Secrets Trends

Advanced Video: Time to Check Your Agreement Provisions

By Siri Rao, Anne Elise Herold Li & Mark A. Romeo

January 16, 2018

On January 11, 2018, the Federal Circuit issued a game-changing decision that addressed the pitfalls of an entity’s attempt to secure the ownership of intellectual property rights through an employment agreement. The Court held that three different provisions that the employer argued effected an assignment of intellectual property rights were not sufficient to convey those rights to the employer. In Advanced Video Technologies, Inc. v. HTC Corporation, the employment agreement under review had three…

Trade Secrets Trends

U.S. Supreme Court Rejects CFAA Appeal by Power Ventures against Facebook

By Ian Robertson & Mark A. Romeo

October 16, 2017

On October 10, 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court denied a petition for writ of certiorari challenging the Ninth Circuit’s holding that Power Ventures, Inc. had violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (“CFAA”) by accessing Facebook user accounts. Power provided a platform whereby its members could access their various social media accounts in one place. Power received authorization from Facebook users for this service after sending them messages through the social media platform. Facebook responded by sending…

Trade Secrets Trends

Trial Experts Must Pick a Lane – Source Code Expert Disqualified for Switching from Neutral Evaluator to Witness in StubHub Trade Secrets Matter

By Ian Robertson & Mark A. Romeo

October 2, 2017

In the hotly contested case of Calendar Research LLC v. StubHub, Inc. et al., which is venued in the Central District of California, the plaintiff alleges misappropriation of trade secrets. Recently, the federal judge overseeing the litigation ruled that a source code expert, who had served very early in the litigation as a neutral evaluator for the parties to determine whether the defendant’s source code was based on Plaintiff’s misappropriated code, was disqualified from being used…

Trade Secrets Trends

Can Your Non Compete Agreement Be Invalidated Based on Wage-and-Hour Violations? One Appellate Court Says Yes.

By Ian Robertson & Mark A. Romeo

September 26, 2017

In addition to federal and state‑specific hurdles facing employers who wish to utilize non‑compete agreements, the Appellate Division of the New Jersey Superior Court has provided a warning to employers across the country that those agreements can be stricken for seemingly unrelated employment issues. On September 22, 2017, in the case of SpaceAge Consulting Corp. v. Maria Vizconde et al. (case no. A-3444-15T1), the Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division, held that an employer had no ability…

Trade Secrets Trends

Waymo v. Otto: Self-Driving and Self-Dealing

By Mark A. Romeo & Derek Hecht

March 3, 2017

Last week, Waymo LLC (a subsidiary of Google’s parent company Alphabet, Inc.) filed suit in the Northern District of California against Uber Technologies, Inc. and Otto Trucking LLC for misappropriation of trade secrets, patent infringement, and unfair business practices. The case is sure to become one of the first high-profile cases alleging claims under the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA) (another being the claims brought against Google and Alphabet by Space Data in June…

Trade Secrets Trends

Oculus: Looks Like Trade Secret Theft

By Mark A. Romeo & Derek Hecht

February 3, 2017

On February 1, 2017, a Texas jury awarded Zenimax $500 million following trial in Zenimax’s longstanding dispute with Oculus, the creators of the Oculus Rift virtual reality system. Zenimax and Oculus had initially worked together on the Oculus Rift, with Zenimax programmer John Carmack (a well-known figure in the video game industry) working with Oculus founder Palmer Luckey (at the time a college student) to improve the Oculus Rift. As part of this collaboration, Zenimax…

Trade Secrets Trends

United States v. Nosal: Keep Your Friends Close, but Your Passwords Even Closer

By Stephen M. Byers, Mark A. Romeo, Preetha Chakrabarti & Joanne Oleksyk

July 18, 2016

On July 5, 2016, the Ninth Circuit affirmed the conviction of David Nosal, an ex-employee of Korn/Ferry, an executive search firm, who left to start a competing firm. With Nosal’s knowledge and encouragement, two other former employees of Korn/Ferry used a current employee’s credentials to gain access to the Korn/Ferry database and take confidential information. U.S. v. Nosal, No. 14-10037, 2016 WL 3608752 at 6 (9th Cir. July 5, 2016). The prosecutors charged Nosal…

Trade Secrets Trends

4 Key Takeaways: What the New Federal Trade Secrets Law Means for Your Clients (June 15 Webinar)

By Mark A. Klapow, Michael Songer, Mark A. Romeo & Vincent J. Galluzzo

June 22, 2016

On June 15, Crowell & Moring hosted a trade secrets webinar, “What the New Federal Trade Secrets Law Means for Your Clients.” The panelists, Mark Klapow, Mark Romeo, Mike Songer, and Vince Galluzzo provided an overview Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA), signed by President Obama in May. The panelists also discussed how the courts are likely to interpret certain provisions and provided best practice guidance how to use DTSA to your client’s advantage. Key Takeaways:…

Mark A. Romeo

Is California Moving to Restrict Restrictive Covenants?

Diversity is Important – But Is It A Trade Secret?

Advanced Video: Time to Check Your Agreement Provisions

U.S. Supreme Court Rejects CFAA Appeal by Power Ventures against Facebook

Trial Experts Must Pick a Lane – Source Code Expert Disqualified for Switching from Neutral Evaluator to Witness in StubHub Trade Secrets Matter

Can Your Non Compete Agreement Be Invalidated Based on Wage-and-Hour Violations? One Appellate Court Says Yes.

Waymo v. Otto: Self-Driving and Self-Dealing

Oculus: Looks Like Trade Secret Theft

United States v. Nosal: Keep Your Friends Close, but Your Passwords Even Closer

4 Key Takeaways: What the New Federal Trade Secrets Law Means for Your Clients (June 15 Webinar)

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