In This Issue:

S.C. Supreme Court Upholds Confidentiality and “Holdover” Inventions Assignment Clauses in Employment Agreement; The America Invents Act: The Big Lesson Learned In The First Year; and The U.S.Patent And Trademark Branch Office Near You.

Excerpt from S.C. Supreme Court Upholds Confidentiality and “Holdover” Inventions Assignment Clauses in Employment Agreement -

In its most significant employment law decision of 2012, Milliken & Co. v. Morin, the South Carolina Supreme Court addressed the enforceability of provisions in an employment agreement designed to protect the employer’s intellectual property from unfair competition.

The case arose when one of Milliken’s research scientists and its team leader for the Advanced Yarns Team resigned to start a company to market a new type of fiber. The scientist had developed the idea for the new type of fiber while working for Milliken, and in the months following his resignation he used the idea he developed at Milliken to invent a new fiber. In the suit, Milliken alleged it owned the rights to the new fiber.