Month: October 2013

HALLOWEEN EDITION: Cookie Maker Gets Early Treat when Court Protects Halloween Cookie Recipe as a Trade Secret

In September 1995, Philadelphia-area cookie manufacturer Sweetzel, Inc. got an early Halloween treat when the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania found that the company’s cookie recipes and customer lists constituted trade secrets, and granted an injunction against Sweetzel’s competitor.  The dispute centered on Sweetzel’s “Spiced Wafers,” which are sold on a limited basis during the Halloween season and have been celebrated as a local food tradition that traces its roots to colonial times.

READ MORE

Fracking Trade Secret Rules: A Tug of War Without Winners

In the approximately 31 states with known reserves amenable to hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” a tug of war is being waged between an oil and gas industry seeking to protect its proprietary processes and environmental groups that want to know the secret sauce.  Because fracking was carved out of federal oversight in 2005, determining where the balance lies has been left to the states.  Not surprisingly, consensus is not the order of the day.  Trade Secrets Watch prepared a state-by-state chart that highlights the key provisions of the states currently requiring disclosure.  To view the chart, click here: flipbook / PDF.

READ MORE

Protecting Trade Secrets in Russia

The primary laws governing Russian trade secrets are the Federal Law on Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection and the Trade Secret Law. The Civil Code, the Labor Code, the Criminal Code, and the Code of Administrative Offenses provide additional statutory protection for trade secrets.

The Information Law defines trade secrets as “information to which access is limited.” Under the Trade Secret Law a trade secret is “any information (production, technical, economic, organizational, information, etc.) which has an actual or potential commercial value because it is unknown to third parties and because third parties do not have free access to it by legitimate means, and with respect to which the holder of such information has implemented a trade secrecy system.” Not all information may constitute a trade secret: the Trade Secret Law expressly lists categories of information that may not be a trade secret (e.g., information on the environment, population, or violations of law).

Read More

New Russian IP Court Marks a Step Toward Strengthening Protection of Trade Secrets and Other IP Rights in Russia

Russia’s new Intellectual Property Court is now open for business, with 16 judges hearing trade secret, patent, trademark and other IP disputes.

The IP Court was officially established in 2011, and it started operation in Moscow on July 3, 2013.

The jurisdiction of the IP Court is limited: it handles cases involving disputes over the establishment and validity of IP rights as a court of first instance, and IP infringement cases as an appellate or cassation court.  Civil cases on copyright protection, as well as criminal and administrative cases, are outside its jurisdiction. However, IP experts believe that it is only a matter of time before the court’s jurisdiction is expanded to include more types of IP disputes.

READ MORE

PULLING BACK THE VEIL: Top 10 Disclosed Trade Secret Settlements

Litigation settlements can often be shrouded in secrecy, and trade secret litigation settlements are no different.  Parties are often sworn to confidentiality, and court dockets are typically silent on the amount of settlements (or even on their existence).  Undaunted, Trade Secrets Watch tried to pull back the curtain, hunting for the biggest trade secrets settlements we could find.  Although these settlements generally run smaller than the top 10 trade secret verdicts we brought you earlier, they are still quite substantial and confirm that trade secret cases can mean big money:

READ MORE

Oktoberfest Edition! Beer and Trade Secrets

Yes, we know the real Oktoberfest takes place primarily in September, and, yes, this post has nothing to do with Germany or celebrations or even fun.  But this time of year presented a good excuse to write about the intersection between trade secrets and beer.  So here you have it:  three moments when trade secret law and beer came together to produce this blog post.

READ MORE

This Day in Trade Secrets: In October 1859, New York Marble Maker Sues Over Disclosure of Marbleizing Methods

One hundred and fifty-four years ago this month, New York marble marker Egbert Deming sued Ezra Chapman, seeking to prevent him from disclosing a secret method for making artificial marble.  Chapman had agreed in writing not to disclose the secret, but sought to get out of his promise.

Although marble has been used in sculpture for millennia, it appears that the method of making artificial marble in question was, at that time, relatively new.  The court observed that, at least according to the defendant, “the art of making artificial marble” was invented by “a person of the name of Hardinge” (possibly Benjamin Hardinge), who, in 1850, communicated the secret method to Williams, who later communicated that method to Deming.

The case is interesting because it shows how courts initially grappled with some fundamental questions that are now more routinely addressed in trade secret cases: READ MORE