An epic legal battle between two camera makers is now underway, with Polaroid alleging GoPro stole the design for its portable camera, the Polaroid Cube. Both products, which can easily be attached to equipment and clothing, have become popular among athletes with an appetite for extreme sports. The market for wearable cameras has done exceptionally
Distilleries are known for being businesses where trade secrets are a critical matter of importance. Building a brand in the alcoholic beverage industry requires these businesses to be unique while retaining a reputation for unmatched quality. Take for example Bénédictine, the world-famous French liqueur. A monk named Dom Bernardo Vincelli created the recipe in 1510, using the
Angie’s List, the crowd-sourced business review website, is suing Amazon Local, a subsidiary of the internet megastore Amazon, over allegations it misappropriated trade secrets. The federal lawsuit was filed based on accusations Amazon Local executives and employees were signing up as members on Angie’s List and downloading provider profiles and member reviews. Allegedly, the information was
For decades, knowledge of Coca Cola’s secret ingredient has remained a mystery. Many people and companies have attempted to guess the secret ingredient, but to no avail. Some would argue that one of the reasons Classic Coke has been so successful is because no one can truly replicate it. Coca Cola’s secret ingredient is the
Gillette has filed a trade secrets lawsuit against four of its former employees, all of which are employees of ShaveLogic. Gillette argues that ShaveLogic was given trade secrets by these former employees, who have breached their contract with Gillette by doing so. Trade secrets are an integral part of why a business succeeds. As such, other companies will sometimes
On November 13, the Los Angeles Superior Court frustrated Mattel’s motion to dismiss a $1 billion trade secret lawsuit, which was filed by MGA Entertainment. The lawsuit was filed because MGA accused Mattel of spying on it and other companies for years at toy shows. This decision is just one part of a long-standing legal feud
Trade secrets refer to an organization’s proprietary knowledge that provides a competitive edge and would be detrimental if released, according to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Often trade secrets are difficult to obtain, not known outside of the organization and subject to security measures. Most states, California included, have adopted the Uniform Trade Secrets
Frito-Lay lost a trademark infringement case against Medallion Foods, according to IPWatchdog. Frito-Lay’s lawsuit against Medallion Foods alleged trademark infringement, trade dress infringement, unfair competition and dilution under the United States Trademark Act as well as patent infringement under the patent laws of the United States. The subject of the trial was Frito-Lay’s Scoops design, which it
Century City is a commercial and residential Los Angeles neighborhood in the Westside region of Los Angeles County. The Los Angeles Department of City Planning estimated that it had a population of 5,934 in 2008, but the Southern California Association of Governments estimates that Century City has a daytime population of 48,343. According to the
Beverly Hills is a city located in southwestern Los Angeles County. According to the US Census, Beverly Hills had a population of 34,109 as of 2010. The city is well-known for the three-block long shopping district of Rodeo Drive as well as its many posh restaurants, such as Spago. The headquarters for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Live Nation Entertainment are
A verdict from a federal jury that found networking equipment corporation Cisco Systems, Inc. fraudulently obtained technology developed by patent licenser XpertUniverse Inc.’s and violated two of the New York-based company’s patents. The jury ordered Cisco to pay $70 million in civil fraud damages and an additional $34,000 in damages for the patent infringement claims.
This video from the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) discusses the major change to US patent law that took effect this month. On March 16, the USPTO switched from the “first-to-invent” system that has been used for decades to evaluate patent applications to a “first-to-file” system. The Wall Street Journal reported that the USPTO received
rs for stealing trade secrets. In its complaint, Express Scripts alleges that former Ernst & Young partner Donald Gravlin “had been sneaking into Express Scripts’ headquarters and stealing confidential and proprietary information belonging to Express Scripts and Medco over the course of several months, with assistance from other E&Y partners and employees.” The complaint alleges Galvin
An October 2012 video from the LexBlog Network talks about the risk that social game company Zynga took when it sued a former employee for allegedly taking confidential information to a competitor. This came only a few months after Zynga was defending itself from allegations of trade secrets theft. In business litigation, it is important for lawyers
A video was released recently that serves as a beginner’s guide to Zynga’s CityVille 2. The game is one of three titles launched last quarter that the San Francisco-based social game developer will be shutting down, according to GamePolitics.com. The decision came after Zynga reported a loss of $448 million for the quarter and a net
A recent survey found that that a common culprit of intellectual property or trade secret theft may be an individual that a company knows quite well: one of its own former employees. The Mountain View, California-based global security software company Symantec said in a recent press release that half of its employees who left their jobs in
In an April 2011 Associated Press video, University of Southern California intellectual property law expert Jack Lerner summarizes some of the issues in a long-running dispute between rival toy makers Mattel, Inc. and MGA Entertainment, Inc. over the billion-dollar Bratz doll line. Mattel first filed a lawsuit in 2004, alleging that the designer of the toys, Carter
Professional wrestler Ric Flair returned to World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. (WWE) during the December 2012 event. However, several months before that show, rival promoter Total Nonstop Action (TNA) filed a lawsuit against WWE after Flair reportedly backed out of his TNA contract in order to return to the competitor. The other defendant named in the
Back in November, we wrote about a federal judge ordering Canadian video game developer Silcon Knights to recall and destroy all unsold copies of Too Human. This was the result of a nasty court battle beginning in 2007, and the judge also ordered all other games containing North Carolina-based Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 3 game engine be recalled
The technology news and information website Ars Technica reported that Sunnyvale, California-based chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) filed a lawsuit against four former employees it alleges “collectively downloaded over 100,000 files onto external hard drives in the six months before leaving” to join competing graphics chip maker Nvidia. The company also alleges that the
On New Year’s Eve, a New York Times story discussed how the billions of dollars that consumers and businesses spend every year on antivirus software “rarely, if ever, block freshly minted computer viruses … because the virus creators move too quickly.” The increase in the number of viruses as well as their sophistication has forced
On December 2, 2012, he 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in New York issued a decision that Reuters said “may make it easier for US companies to crack down on alleged computer theft that occurs in remote locations, including outside the country.” Reversing a lower court ruling, the appeals court said American chemical company
Bloomberg News reported that a former GM engineer and her husband were convicted of stealing trade secrets on hybrid-car technology from the automaker to help develop similar vehicles in China. According to Bloomberg, ex-employee Shanshan Du allegedly copied GM’s private information on the motor control of hybrids and provided documents to her husband, Yu Qin. Qin allegedly
Kansas City, Missouri-based Hallmark Cards, Inc. has long been the largest manufacturer of greeting cards in the United States ever since being founded over a century ago. For the past seven years, Hallmark had been engaged in a legal dispute with Monitor Company Group of Massachusetts. On November 19, 2012, the Kansas City Star reported
Canadian video game developer Silicon Knights was ordered to recall and destroy all of its games containing North Carolina-based Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 3 game engine. The video game news website Gamasutra reported on November 9, 2012, that North Carolina District Judge James Dever stated that Silicon Knights “repeatedly and deliberately copied significant portions of
The video game news website Gamasutra reported on October 31, 2012, that independent game studio Checkpoint is suing Japanese publisher Marvelous AQL and other parties for breach of contract, theft of trade secrets and other claims. Gamasutra reported that the complaint filed by Checkpoint CEO Brian Wiklem states that Marvelous paid the studio $2.5 million in startup costs
The United Kingdon’s Croydon Guardian reported on October 19, 2012, that 41-year-old Justin Success Brooks pleaded guilty to seven counts of fraud after selling thousands of counterfeit cartridges of popular games for the Nintendo Wii, DS and DSi consoles. According to the Guardian, Brooks made an estimated £600,000 (over $962,000) from online sales of the
In many ways, California tends to err on the side of workers. Non-compete agreements are generally invalid altogether in the state. When it comes to trade secrets cases, California courts have rejected the “inevitable disclosure” doctrine, which claims that employees who go to work for a competitor inevitably disclose trade secrets to their new employer. Last week,
