LinkedIn Connection Request Doesn’t Violate Non-Solicitation Clause—Bankers Life v. American Senior Benefits
This is another case considering when LinkedIn activity violates a non-solicitation clause. Bankers Life, a company that sells insurance and financial products, sued one of its ex-employees (and his new employer, ASB) alleging among other things that the ex-employee violated…
‘Blatant Sales Pitch’ on LinkedIn Likely Violates Non-solicitation Clause–Mobile Mini v. Vevea
This is a noncompete dispute. Defendant Vevea worked for Mobile Mini. She signed an agreement with Mobile Mini restricting her post-employment activities. Specifically, she agreed: not to work in the Portable Storage Business at a location within fifty miles of…
New Paper: “The Defend Trade Secrets Act Isn’t an ‘Intellectual Property’ Law”
Congress worked on the Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA) for years, yet the final product has a number of rough edges and curiosities. One example is the following sentence: This section and the amendments made by this section shall not…
The DTSA’s Ex Parte Seizure Order: The “Ex” Stands for “Extraordinary” (Guest Blog Post)
[By guest blogger Paul M. Mersino. Paul is an attorney with the Detroit-based law firm Butzel Long, P.C. He specializes in Trade Secret disputes throughout the nation. He defended against the first ex parte seizure application in the nation under the DTSA…
Another Court Rejects DTSA Ex Parte Seizure–Brunswick Rail v Sultanov
You may recall my criticisms of the Defend Trade Secrets Act’s ex parte seizure provision. As far as I know, only two courts have addressed it. Last year, a court declined to grant the seizure without any discussion at all….
Top 10 Internet Law Developments of 2016
Donald Trump’s election as president pretty much dominated our thoughts about 2016 (though Brexit was pretty significant too). So I decided to break up my annual top 10 list into two separate top 5 lists, one election-related, one not. Top…
Does Google’s Non-Disclosure Agreement With Employees Overreach? (Guest Blog Post)
Guest Post by Sharon K. Sandeen In the lead-up to this year’s Presidential election, there was a lot of chatter about the next “bomb-shell” bit of information that might be revealed about Donald Trump, particularly after his now-infamous pussy-grabbing comments….
Court Benchslaps Trade Secret Plaintiff and Counsel For Bad Faith Litigation–RBC Bearings v. Caliber
As you know, for the past year I’ve been railing against the Defend Trade Secrets Act’s unprecedented and ill-advised ex parte seizure provision. The good news is that, as far as I know, there’s only been one request for a…
Employees Bound By Clickthrough Agreements–ADP v. Lynch
An employer sued two departing employees for joining a competitor. The employer sought to enforce, among other things, a non-compete clause (the court calls it a restrictive covenant). The employer included the non-compete provision in stock option grant documentation presented…
Q2 2016 Quick Links, Part 1 (Intellectual Property)
Copyright * Skidmore v. Led Zeppelin, No. CV 15-03462-RGK (AGRx) (C.D. Cal. June 23, 2016): Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven isn’t substantially similar to Spirit’s Taurus. The plaintiff’s lawyer explains why it was a loss for both sides. My Q:…