On January 14th, 2020, Crowell & Moring hosted a webinar session discussing blockchain and its implications for trade secret protection, as well as its potential implications on other areas of intellectual property (IP). Introduced by Crowell & Moring partner Mark Klapow, attorneys Josh Rychlinski and Kayvan Ghaffari explained general principles of trade secret law, general principles of blockchain, and discussed how blockchain could be used to protect trade secrets, as well as other forms…

The Southern District of California recently confirmed that the California Uniform Trade Secrets Act (“CUTSA”) does not preempt other civil claims to extent they are based on wrongful conduct relating to non-trade secret intellectual property. The case involves an employee leaving a company and allegedly commercializing its trade secret with a competitor. Defendant Mr. Corey was an original co-founder of Plaintiff Javo – which sold coffee, tea, and botanical extracts. He played a key role…

Crowell & Moring invites you to attend the first installment of our new Trade Secrets Webinar Series: Protecting Trade Secrets and other Intellectual Property with Blockchain, taking place on Tuesday, January 14th at 2:00 pm (EDT). Blockchain technology is a powerful tool, outside of just the realm of cryptocurrency, that can be utilized to safely encrypt and thereby protect trade secrets. During this webinar, Crowell & Moring attorneys Mark Klapow, Josh Rychlinski, and Kayvan Ghaffari will…

California Business and Professions Code section 16600 states that “every contract by which anyone is restrained from engaging in a lawful profession, trade, or business of any kind is to that extent void.” This statute has been interpreted to mean that noncompete agreements in employment contracts are per se invalid in California as an unlawful restraint on trade. Quidel Corp. v. Super. Ct., 39 Cal. App. 5th 530, 539 (2019). However, on August 29, 2019, in Quidel…

On December 5th, 2019, Crowell & Moring’s Brussels office, in cooperation with the Belgian Institute for In-House Counsel, hosted a deep dive session into the EU Trade Secrets Directive and the changes this legal framework has brought about since it went into effect in 2016. Crowell & Moring attorneys including Partners Jan-Diederik Lindemans and Emmanuel Plasschaert, Senior Counsel Gunther Meyer, and Associates Judith Bussé and Evelien Jamaels guided participants through best practices on maximizing…

Chinese national and materials scientist Hongjin Tan has pled guilty to stealing from his former employer Phillips 66 (“Phillips”) more than $1 billion in trade secrets related to next generation battery technology. DOJ announced Tan’s guilty plea this week which revealed that he copied substantial research and development files that he knew contained protected company trade secrets. Only one day after copying the confidential files, Tan submitted a notice of resignation to Phillips and informed…

On November 5, 2019, Black Knight Inc. brought suit in Florida state court against PennyMac Loan Services LLC (“PennyMac”) alleging breach of contract and trade secret misappropriation under the Florida Uniform Trade Secrets Act. PennyMac allegedly used its access to Black Knight’s trade secrets and other confidential information relating to its proprietary mortgage servicing software platform (“MSP”) to work with third party software engineers and improperly develop an imitation mortgage-processing system. PennyMac purportedly did so…