Another Case to Watch in the Ongoing Debate Over the Computer Fraud & Abuse Act
The past year has produced noteworthy decisions from the Sixth, Ninth and Eleventh Circuit Courts of Appeals – and recent Congressional hearings – regarding the applicability of the Computer Fraud & Abuse Act (“CFAA”) to employers’ claims that disloyal employees accessed their employers’ computers in order to take trade secrets, source code, and other valuable electronically stored information. The CFAA provides a federal, private right of action against any person who “knowingly and with intent to defraud, accesses a protected computer without authorization, or exceeds authorized access, and by means of such conduct furthers the intended fraud and obtains anything of value… .” 18 U.S.C. § 1030(a)(4).
Dispute Serves Up Lessons for Restaurateurs in Employee Defection and Trade Secrets
A case pending in New York federal court, BLT Restaurant Group LLC v. Laurent Tourondel, Michael Cinque and LT Burger, Inc., provides a reminder of important lessons for professionals in the food services and restaurant industry regarding employee defection and trade secrets issues.
Enjoining Nick Saban: Non-Compete Agreements and College Football Coaches
In the realm of examining whether non-compete provisions should be used in particular professions, this article by Clay Travis asks an interesting question: why don’t college football coaches have non-competes? It is a timely question in January as every sports media outlet is full of headlines about coaches unexpectedly moving between schools, a recent example being the abrupt move of Todd Graham from Pitt to Arizona State. It’s difficult to answer Travis’s question, but here are a few potential explanations:
RESOLVE TO SAFEGUARD COMPANY INFORMATION IN 2012
For many businesses, employees are the biggest investment and the primary safeguard of their confidential, proprietary and competitive information. For some employees, however, a slowly rebounding economy presents increased opportunities to join a competitor looking to capitalize on the specialized knowledge of an experienced industry insider.
Twas the Night Before Christmas -- Non-Compete Style
Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the company;
A disgruntled employee kept saying “please jump with me.”
Lawsuit Serves Up Lessons For Restaurateurs
A decision issued this summer by a federal district court in New York provides important lessons for professionals in the food services and restaurant industry regarding employee defection and trade secrets issues.
Lie about your age...Steal a trade secret..It's all criminal.
Could it possibly be equally as unlawful to lie about your age as it is to download trade secrets from your employer's computer? Some say that both may constitute a violation of the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1030 (“CFAA”), and therefore the statute must be amended.
When to Call the Feds for Trade Secret Theft
Last week, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois saw the start of a bench trial in United States v. Jin, 1:08-cr-00192 (N.D. Ill. Mar. 3, 2008), in which software engineer Hanjuan Jin is accused of stealing trade secrets from her former employer Motorola Corporation to sell to the Chinese military. Jin is also giving Yihao Ben Pu a sneak peek at what lays in store for him – last month, Pu was brought up on criminal charges in the same court for stealing the trade secrets of his former employer, hedge fund Citadel. These recent high-profile cases have some employers wondering what criminal law can help them do to protect their own trade secrets and when they should involve police or federal authorities instead of merely filing a civil suit.
China Non-Compete and Trade Secrets Law: A Primer for U.S. In-House Counsel
This is the second in our series on international non-compete and trade secrets law for U.S. corporate counsel. Today, we examine the law in the world’s second largest economy, The Peoples Republic of China (PRC). The heated competition for qualified talent in the PRC makes non-compete protections a crucial topic. In a recent survey, members of the US-China Business Council reported that their #1 challenge doing business in China was “talent recruitment and retention”:
Mexico Non-Compete and Trade Secrets Law: A Primer for U.S. In-House Counsel
On paper, the restrictive covenant law in Mexico looks a bit like California, but on closer examination it may be easier for a company to achieve certain goals in Mexico. For U.S. practitioners, Mexico offers an interesting example of just how different employment laws in general – and restrictive covenant law in particular – can be in a different legal system. In Mexico, the first principles from which all restrictive covenant law derives are found in the Mexican Constitution. The Constitution of the United Mexican States contains prohibitions and guarantees intended to protect all Mexican citizens and the Mexican economy.
