What would you, as in-house intellectual property (IP) counsel or a strategy officer, rather have: patents, with the attendant gold seals and red ribbons, or the employees who develop the company’s technology? A popular answer is patents. For example, when …
In professional sports, the goal is to win. A team wins games because of talented players and coaches. A team wins games and consistently competes for championships — with those talented players and coaches and those that come later — …
Trade Secrets Usually Do Not Go Into Slumps Or Land On The Disabled List Read more »
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) v. Wyndham Worldwide Corp., 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 14839 (CA3, Aug. 24, 2015) is a double espresso for directors and officers of companies that own trade secrets, and especially large, publicly traded companies that own trade …
What Are Your Decision-Makers Doing To Protect Trade Secrets? Read more »
An NFL team’s 53-man, in-season roster is developed through a rigorous process that depends on effective testing and teaching methods. At least one team, the St. Louis Rams, has acknowledged that it utilizes confidential information in connection with testing and …
Roger Goodell went to U.S. district court (after selecting the NFL’s hometown venue) and essentially said to Judge Richard Berman, “King me!” Unfortunately, Commissioner Goodell, you were playing chess, not checkers. And, ultimately, the NFL lost because you did not …
Deflategate Bottom Line: Roger, You Were Playing Chess, Not Checkers Read more »
Cyber-attacks are part of the daily news cycle. Just about any company, regardless of size and industry, can be an inviting target for hackers. Reportedly, 71 % of cyber-attacks are directed at companies with fewer than 100 employees. (Lou Shipley, …
A Simpler Approach To Protecting Certain Information Assets Read more »
Destroying, discarding or failing to preserve a smartphone, broken or not, is not a good look or, frankly, advisable when the smartphone or its contents are a potential source of pertinent information. That is common sense. But, there is a …
Can an intellectual property sale eliminate or sufficiently mitigate antitrust concerns relating to a proposed acquisition? General Electric Co. apparently believes so, at least when it comes to the European market. GE is facing headwinds in its attempt to acquire …
Can An Intellectual Property Sale Be An Antitrust Antidote? Read more »
On June 22, 2015, the Supreme Court issued a largely unremarkable patent/contract opinion, Kimble v. Marvel Entertainment, LLC. The Court addressed whether a license agreement that imposes royalties for post-expiration use of a patent is enforceable. The Court held that …
SCOTUS Patent Scorecard Update: Kimble Maintains Brulotte Status Quo Read more »
On March 8, 2015, we explored trade secrets’ role in professional sports and left off with: So, what is next? Will professional sports teams take sufficient protective measures to protect their CVI [competitively valuable information] as trade secrets? They should. …