Just over a month ago, employers throughout the United States breathed a sigh of relief after Judge Ada Brown in the Northern District of Texas issued a summary judgment ruling in the Ryan v. FTC litigation setting aside the...more
9/25/2024
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Appeals ,
Arbitrary and Capricious ,
Confidential Information ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Final Rules ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Motion To Stay ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Preliminary Injunctions ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
Summary Judgment
On January 23, 2020, the Texas Fifth District Court of Appeals in Dallas retracted its previous ruling in the trade secrets dispute Goldberg, et al. v. EMR (USA Holdings) Inc., et al. and issued a new opinion upon rehearing. ...more
In a bold but conservative 2-1 decision Wednesday, The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed the ruling of a federal district judge in Texas striking down the individual mandate of the Affordable Care...more
12/23/2019
/ Affordable Care Act ,
Appeals ,
Article III ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Employee Benefits ,
Health Insurance ,
Healthcare Reform ,
Individual Mandate ,
Life Sciences ,
Remand ,
Repeal ,
Standing
Seyfarth Synopsis: Knowledge that a competitor or former employee is misappropriating trade secrets is difficult to come by. At the same time, however, once a company has notice that misappropriation may be occurring, the...more
12/4/2019
/ Appeals ,
Children's Toys ,
Competition ,
Confidential Information ,
Counterclaims ,
Former Employee ,
Intellectual Property Litigation ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Mattel ,
MGA Entertainment ,
Misappropriation ,
Misrepresentation ,
Preservation of Rights ,
Retail Market ,
State and Local Government ,
Statute of Limitations ,
Time-Barred Claims ,
Trade Secrets ,
Uniform Trade Secrets Acts
On November 13, 2018, the United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit, affirmed the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas’s denial of prevailing party attorneys’ fees in a matter of first impression...more
The Texas Court of Appeals, Third District, issued an opinion in Tejas Vending, LP, et al. v. Tejas Promotions, LLC further delineating the applicability of Texas’s anti-SLAPP statute, the Texas Citizens Participation Act...more
7/12/2018
/ Anti-SLAPP ,
Appeals ,
Breach of Contract ,
Civil Conspiracy ,
Confidential Information ,
Declaratory Relief ,
Gaming ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Misappropriation ,
Non-Disclosure Agreement ,
State and Local Government ,
Trade Secrets
Late last week, the Texas Supreme Court denied a petition for mandamus in which the petitioner sought an order compelling a plaintiff to identify the specific trade secrets it contends were misappropriated, bucking what...more
The San Antonio Court of Appeals recently held that an applicant for a temporary injunction in a trade-secret-misappropriation case under the Texas Uniform Trade Secrets Act is not required to show the defendant is actually...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: The Texas Supreme Court throws out a former employee’s defamation suit under the Texas Citizens Participation Act, finding that communications about his alleged failure to measure a petroleum storage tank...more
3/3/2017
/ Anti-SLAPP ,
Appeals ,
Citizens Participation Acts ,
Defamation ,
Exxon Mobil ,
Former Employee ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Public Interest ,
Public Safety ,
Remand ,
Reversal ,
TX Supreme Court
Applying new Texas Supreme Court precedent, a Texas Court of Appeals recently held that a six-year-old cease-and-desist letter alleging trade-secret misappropriation did not constitute proof of knowledge for purposes of the...more
A Texas Court of Appeals affirmed a summary judgment last month in favor of an ex-employee declaring that a noncompete clause in an asset purchase agreement and separate noncompete agreement did not bar him from competing...more
12/28/2016
/ Appeals ,
Asset Purchaser ,
Competition ,
Contract Terms ,
Employment Contract ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Purchase Agreement ,
Resignation ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
Summary Judgment
On October 27, 2016, the Fort Worth Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court’s order denying an application for temporary injunction seeking to enjoin Thomas Musgrave, the former president of Henry F. Coffeen III Management,...more
12/3/2016
/ Appeals ,
Breach of Contract ,
Consideration ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employment Contract ,
Interlocutory Appeals ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Non-Solicitation Agreements ,
Permanent Injunctions ,
Preliminary Injunctions ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
Scope and Duration of Restrictive Covenant ,
TRO
A Texas Court of Appeals held on August 22, 2016, that a former employer was entitled to $2.8 million in attorney’s fees against a former employee who used the employer’s information to compete against it. The Court reached...more
9/2/2016
/ Appeals ,
Attorney's Fees ,
Breach of Contract ,
Confidential Information ,
Damages ,
Employment Contract ,
Former Employee ,
Jury Trial ,
Misappropriation ,
Permanent Injunctions ,
Remedies ,
Trade Secrets ,
Unfair Competition