The Illinois Trade Secrets Act (“ITSA”), which is consistent with both other states that have adopted the Uniform Trade Secrets Act and the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act, allows the recovery of attorneys’ fees for a party who has been forced to defend against a trade secret claim made in bad faith. See 765 ILCS 1065/5. This fee shifting provision provides an important mechanism to obtain relief for defendants who are forced to incur…

After a months-long delay due to an outbreak of COVID-19 during the first trial, a federal jury in Texas awarded a $152 million verdict—including $120 million in punitive damages—in a trade secret misappropriation case between rival software development companies. Case Summary In 2019, software company ResMan LLC (“Resman”) sued its former customer Karya Property Management LLC (“Karya”), alleging that Karya provided its third party software consultant, co-defendant Expedien, with unauthorized access to Resman’s trade secrets…

We want to share some exciting news with our blog followers. Dawn Mertineit, Seyfarth partner and member of the firm’s Trade Secrets, Computer Fraud & Non-Competes group, is co-editor of our Trading Secrets blog. She joins Robert Milligan, Trading Secrets editor, Seyfarth partner, and co-chair of the Trade Secrets, Computer Fraud & Non-Compete group. We’re thrilled to have Dawn’s help in continuing to ensure our blog provides timely information on the latest legal trends…

The California Court of Appeal recently upheld the dismissal of claims against Mattel, which alleged that Mattel stole the idea for its flying Barbie doll from Technology from Heaven Unlimited (“TFHU”). Applying New York law, the Court found that Mattel did not misappropriate TFHU’s idea to create a flying Barbie using drone technology, as this idea did not have general novelty, even if the idea was novel to the buyer. Moving forward, companies should ensure…

Thursday, April 1, 2021 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. Eastern 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. Central 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Mountain 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. Pacific Establishing a process, checklist, or set of best practices for employee termination and data repatriation is essential, especially in a remote work environment. Depending on the remote work policy, including whether there is a bring your own device (BYOD) policy, different steps should be followed upon termination…

Seyfarth Synopsis: In a case of first impression, the Ninth Circuit held that the continued use doctrine is available under the DTSA, and the court permitted a plaintiff to raise a DTSA claim for misappropriation of trade secrets even though the initial misappropriation allegedly occurred before the DTSA was passed. The Ninth Circuit also held that a patent application may preclude a DTSA claim when the plaintiff does not claim that any trade secret information…

A decade ago, the Georgia legislature enacted a new restrictive covenant statute, O.C.G.A. § 13-8-51 et al. (the “Georgia RCA”). Among other things, the Georgia RCA permitted Georgia courts to blue-pencil or “modify a covenant that is otherwise void and unenforceable so long as the modification does not render the covenant more restrictive with regard to the employee than as originally drafted by the parties.” O.C.G.A. § 13-8-53(d).…