A recent Justice Department reorganization of its National Security Division concentrates resources on fighting state-sponsored economic espionage and corporate theft of trade secrets. These strategic changes focus on Justice’s ability to target and prosecute hackers and others who seek to damage national assets by means including economic espionage, proliferation, and cyber-based national security threats.
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On May 13, 2014, a former employee of Nissan in Japan was arrested by the Economic Affairs Division of the Kanagawa Prefectural Police on suspicion of trade secret theft. The arrest was made under the trade secret provisions of Japan’s Unfair Competition Prevention Act (“UCPA”).
The former employee, identified as Kenichi Okamura, a Japanese national, worked at the Nissan Technical Center in Atsugi, Japan until he resigned in July 2013. Before his resignation, he allegedly copied, on four different occasions, approximately five thousand electronic files pertaining to sales and marketing plans for Nissan’s popular “X-TRAIL” SUV. He allegedly copied the files from Nissan servers to a private storage device that he took with him when he left the company. READ MORE
The U.S. Justice Department has charged members of the Chinese military with allegedly engaging in economic espionage against American companies. It’s the first time that the United States has leveled such charges against agents of a foreign country. But with the accused in China, is this more bluster than bombshell? Or are actual prosecutions possible?
A federal grand jury empanelled at the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania (where most of the target companies are located) returned an indictment against five members of a Chinese military unit in Shanghai, accusing them of conspiring to hack into the computer systems of six American companies. READ MORE
Technology firms SanDisk and Toshiba recently filed trade secrets lawsuits on opposite sides of the Pacific, each alleging misappropriation by a third party stemming from the two companies’ joint venture.
SanDisk filed in California (seeking damages and injunctive relief) and Toshiba in Japan for alleged misappropriation of trade secrets from SanDisk and a SanDisk-Toshiba joint venture. In Japan, the alleged perpetrator was arrested. Engineer Yoshitaka Sugita, his former employer, SK Hynix, and two wholly-owned North American subsidiaries stand accused of misappropriation. SK Hynix is accused in both the California and Japan actions. READ MORE
As the world prepares to descend on Sochi for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games, Trade Secrets Watch decided to take a look at how effective trade secret protections are in Russia.
Although Russia has fairly robust trade secret laws, Russian companies have generally been reluctant to seek legal redress for trade secret violations. According to studies conducted by market research agencies, about 90 percent of Russian companies have at some stage suffered from the theft of trade secrets. Although such theft can be a criminal offense, in most cases companies faced with this problem try to deal with it by themselves. In only 5 percent of cases do they initiate legal proceedings. READ MORE
It’s been a hot year in the trade secrets field, with some huge verdicts and settlements, a renewed spotlight on cyberattacks, and an unusual flurry of trade secrets legislation. Trade Secrets Watch’s 2013 Year-in-Review highlights the notable trade secrets activity from the past year. READ MORE
European Union officials have just issued a draft set of rules that would impose uniform trade secret guidelines across the EU, motivated by trade pact negotiations with the United States and concerns about state-sponsored spying, according to The New York Times. Although the leaders of the European Commission have yet to sign off on the proposed rules, they plan to adopt them tentatively on November 27. The rules are then subject to a long legislative negotiating process before they come into force. READ MORE
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.
Can trade secret owners secretly petition a court to seize property from a competitor that they suspect of stealing trade secrets? In the United States, the answer is: “Not yet.” This is one of the issues that Congress is considering as it debates a myriad of proposed trade secret reform bills. But in France, ex parte seizure orders have been available for some time and can be a powerful tool for trade secret owners to preserve the status quo and prove a case of trade secret misappropriation.
In France, companies that suspect a competitor has stolen its trade secrets can bring an action for unfair competition before the “Tribunal de Commerce,” or Commercial Court. In these types of cases, trade secret owners can allege that their competitors are unfairly benefitting from the plaintiff’s research and development efforts. Although discovery in France is limited, Article 145 of the French Code of Civil Procedure can help plaintiffs obtain the necessary evidence through a pretrial investigative measure known as a “référé in futurum.” READ MORE
Just because Russia gave asylum to NSA leaker Edward Snowden doesn’t mean the country disrespects secrets. When it comes to confidential business documents, at least, Russia has a well developed body of trade secret laws. Check out our primer here.
