As we navigate a rapidly evolving business and legal landscape, Seyfarth proudly presents the latest edition of our flagship publication, the 50-State Non-Compete Desktop Reference. Crafted with precision by our nationally...more
“Magic words,” “TRAPs,” and the federal non-compete ban rising from the dead? October had several spooky developments in restrictive covenant law, but no need to be frightened! We’ve got you covered with updates, insights,...more
In 2016, the Defend Trade Secret Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1836 (the “DTSA”), passed Congress and went into effect. At its heart, it effectively codified the Uniform Trade Secrets Act at the federal level, creating a federal cause of...more
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently issued a Final Rule that invalidates non-compete clauses in standard employment agreements. This new regulation, with some limited exceptions, imposes a nationwide and retroactive...more
Welcome to our Q2 Trade Secret and Restrictive Covenant Update. As you can tell from the update, Q2 was a busy quarter in this space from both a regulatory, legislative, civil litigation and criminal litigation perspective....more
Earlier this month, a federal court judge in the United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois denied a defendant’s motion to dismiss a plaintiff’s amended complaint for, among other claims, trade secret...more
1. What is the statutory authority for trade secret protection in your state? In 1994, Ohio adopted the Uniform Trade Secrets Act (“OUTSA”), Ohio R.C. § 1333.61, et seq. The OUTSA provides for various remedies to protect...more
The "inevitable disclosure" doctrine permits the plaintiff in a trade secrets case to establish threatened misappropriation by showing that the defendant's new employment will inevitably lead the defendant to rely on the...more
Federal courts remain split on whether the Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA) allows for trade secret misappropriation claims brought under a theory of inevitable disclosure. Given this current patchwork of treatment of...more
Late last year, a California appellate court reaffirmed longstanding principles that have important lessons for employers hoping to prevent their employees from taking trade secrets with them if they leave to work for a...more
Court Affirms $4.26 Million Jury Award For “Self-Published Defamation” - Tilkey v. Allstate Ins. Co., 2020 WL 6268474 (Cal. Ct. App. 2020) - Allstate terminated Michael Tilkey, a 30-year employee who sold life...more
Grounded in California’s recognized hostility against restraints on competition, a recently published opinion from the California Court of Appeal, Hooked Media Grp., Inc. v. Apple Inc., held that to establish trade secret...more
The Defend Trade Secrets Act (“DTSA”) went into effect in May 2016. Since then, federal courts have largely adhered to existing law in their respective states to determine whether the inevitable disclosure doctrine applies to...more
An Illinois appellate court recently clarified the outer limits of the controversial “inevitable disclosure doctrine” under the Illinois Trade Secrets Act....more
As we reported in August, Massachusetts became the penultimate state to enact the Uniform Trade Secrets Act (UTSA), leaving New York as the sole remaining holdout. Massachusetts’ new law, which took effect October 1, 2018,...more
Prior to the federally enacted Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA), companies seeking civil remedies for misappropriation were generally limited to state law causes of action (including, where applicable, a state version of the...more
We first wrote on this topic nearly a year ago. Since then, courts have had an opportunity to interpret some of the provisions of the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA). Indeed, since it was signed into law, more than...more
Since its passage in 2016, the Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA) has increasingly become a valuable tool for employers seeking to enjoin former employees and competitors from misappropriating trade secrets. However, in requests...more
Over the past several months, state and federal courts in Illinois have issued several important decisions that will impact employers’ efforts to enforce post-employment restrictive covenants and protect their trade secrets....more
The Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA) states very clearly that an injunction issued pursuant thereto may not “prevent a person from entering into an employment relationship,” and that any conditions placed on a former...more
On May 11, 2017, a Northern District of Illinois federal court ruled that a Plaintiff properly alleged misappropriation under both the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA) and the Illinois Trade Secrets Act (ITSA) in a...more
A recent decision in the Northern District of Illinois gave life to the inevitable disclosure doctrine under the Defend Trade Secrets Act. Inevitable disclosure is a common law doctrine by which a court can prevent a former...more
Companies commonly assume that they will only be sued for trade secret misappropriation if they or someone from their company steal the “secret sauce” of their competitor. Not true. A far more common way that companies get...more
A recent decision by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois allowed one company to sue its direct competitor for misappropriation of trade secrets based entirely on the improper taking of trade secrets...more
In a prior blog post, we used the Star Wars Universe as the backdrop for a discussion about obtaining a preliminary injunction in the context of a noncompete agreement. But we left a discussion of the inevitable disclosure...more