Congress Should MOVE To Restrict Employee Non-Compete Clauses (Forbes Cross-Post)
Newly hired employees routinely must accept non-compete restrictions as a condition of employment, but don’t interpret the ubiquity of non-compete clauses as a signal that they are a good idea. By restricting future competition for employees’ labor, employee non-competition clauses…
Some Specific Problems With The Proposed Federal Trade Secret Law (Comments From a Reader)
Recently, David Levine guest-blogged a bibliography about a new federal trade secret law. In response to that post, a reader emailed me the following comments (which, as usual, I’m sharing with permission): __ First, the initial problem is that an…
Another Competitive Keyword Advertising Lawsuit Fails–Infogroup v. DatabaseLLC
The plaintiffs run several well-known databases, such as infoUSA and Salesgenie. The defendants are former employees of plaintiffs who split off and launched a competitive rival. The plaintiffs are upset that the defendants’ databases contain fake listings created by the…
Company’s Social Media Accounts Transferred in Bankruptcy
This case addresses whether social media accounts used in connection with a business become property of the bankruptcy estate. The debtor, known as “Tactical Firearms,” was formed by Jeremy Alcede. Originally it was owned by Alcede and his then-wife, but…
Do Employers Own LinkedIn Groups Created By Employees?–CDM v. Sims
Simms worked for plaintiff CDM Media but switched jobs to work for Box, allegedly one of plaintiff’s larger customers. Plaintiff alleges that Simms violated a non-compete and misappropriated its trade secrets. Among other issues, plaintiff sought control of a “LinkedIn…
A Bibliography About Federal Trade Secret Law Reform (Guest Blog Post)
Eric’s introduction: patent and copyright reform get a lot of attention, and they have overshadowed proposals to create a new federal trade secret civil cause of action that have been floating around in Congress for a few years. I’ve previously…
Top 10 Internet Law Developments of 2014 (Forbes Cross-Post)
It’s time for my annual recap of the top Internet Law developments of the year. #10: Copyright Fair Use Tilts To Defense. Larry Lessig has famously said that “fair use in America simply means the right to hire a lawyer…
Food Flavor Can’t Be Trademarked (Even If The Baked Ziti Is Delicious)–NY Pizzeria v. Syal (Forbes Cross-Post)
You may remember the advertising campaign for Coke Zero from almost a decade ago. The gag is that Coke Zero allegedly tasted so much like “real” Coke that one division of Coca-Cola threatened to sue another division for “taste infringement.”…
Congress Is Considering A New Federal Trade Secret Law. Why? (Forbes Cross-Post)
[Two brief introductory notes: (1) the trade secret bills have been dormant in Congress pending the November elections, but don’t rule out the possibility of them roaring back immediately thereafter, and (2) I have uploaded an expanded version of this…
More Intellectual Property Trivia Questions (The Outtakes)
Recently I posted our IP trivia quiz from WIPIP. To prepare those trivia questions, my colleagues (Tyler Ochoa and Brian Love) and I made a list of potential questions and then picked our favorites. In this post, I’m sharing the…