By Erik Larson

U.S. District Judge Stephen Robinson in White Plains, New York, rejected IBM's claim this week that it had new evidence to include in a motion for a preliminary injunction against the ex-employee, David L. Johnson. Robinson denied IBM's first request June 26, saying it would unfairly hurt Johnson's career.

IBM sought an injunction for the duration of the lawsuit in which it seeks to enforce a one-year noncompetition agreement that Johnson, a 27-year IBM veteran, says isn't valid because he deliberately signed it in the wrong space. IBM appealed Robinson's earlier ruling.

Dell, based in Round Rock, Texas, hired Johnson in May, triggering a lawsuit in which Armonk, New York-based IBM accused him of violating the agreement intended to protect trade secrets and retain employees.

To continue reading this interesting article from NB Businessjournal, click here.

By: Ryan Carter

Hacienda Heights-based Green Project Inc. alleges in a lawsuit filed July 27 in U.S. District Court in Oregon that Epson America Inc. and its parent, Japan-based Seiko Epson Corp., sent a company spy into the facility to gain access to trade secrets.

The company also claims that Epson punished it and firms like it for reselling recycled Epson cartridges.

"My reaction (to the allegations) is they are B.S. and designed to create a posture for Green Project ... and that there's no substance to them," said David W. Axelrod, a lead attorney for Epson.

To continue reading this interesting article from Pasadena Star News, click here.

By: Keith Clouse

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals recently vacated summary judgment in a trade secret case. Cudd Pressure Control Inc. v. Roles, No. 08-20389 (5th Cir. June 11, 2009),
Ronnie Roles worked for Cudd Pressure Control Inc. until he (and several other former Cudd employees) joined a newly-formed competing business.

Cudd filed suit, alleging violations of trade secret laws. The district court granted summary judgment for the former employees on the ground that the information at issue did not constitute trade secrets.

To continue reading this article from Top Wire News- Law, click here.

By: Patterson Irrigator Editorial Board

The Del Puerto Health Care District board of directors voted unanimously to extend the district's purchase agreement with Keystone for a new health center. There was no public discussion on the matter.

"The acts of attempting to amend zoning laws or choose a different parcel of property to acquire don't come remotely close to falling within the definition set forth in the civil code," Ewert wrote in an e-mail to the Irrigator. "Merely labeling proposed action or discussion of these items as a trade secret is not enough. Both of these items are required by law to be discussed in open session, because no other exemption allows discussion or action on these items in closed session."

In order to continue reading this interesting article from Patterson Irrigator click here.

By DANA CIMILLUCA

Belgian investment firm RHJ International plans to sweeten its bid for General Motors Co.'s European unit in an effort to overcome German government opposition to its bid.

A deal with Magna and Sberbank poses risks for GM that a deal with RHJ would not. Magna supplies parts to GM rivals and plans to partner with Russian automaker OAO GAZ if it wins the auction. GM is concerned that its intellectual property would leak through Magna.

Magna on Friday said it would create a "firewall" to keep trade secrets of its customers safe should its Opel bid succeed.

To continue reading this article from Wall Street Journal, click here.

By American-Statesman Staff

Austin trustees are scheduled to decide Monday whether to move forward with a lawsuit to keep documents related to their search for a new superintendent from being released to the public.

The lawsuit was filed in June without board approval because, according to the school district's attorneys, the district had to meet a deadline for filing a suit challenging Attorney General Greg Abbott office's ruling that certain documents from the search be made public.

Although the district is fighting to withhold some information, it did release several documents it had sought to keep secret. The school district's attorneys have argued that these and other documents contained information that would reveal the finalists' identities, details of the board's "deliberative process" or "trade secrets" of the search firm.

To continue reading this article from Statesman, click here.

Chinaview
Editor: Yan

Prosecutors have approved the arrest of four employees of the Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto Ltd. on charges of trade secrets infringement and bribery, according to a statement of China's Supreme People's Procuratorate late Tuesday.

Preliminary investigations have showed that the four employees, Stern Hu, Liu Caikui, Ge Minqiang and Wang Yong, had obtained commercial secrets of China's steel and iron industry through improper means, which had violated the country's Criminal Law, according to the statement.

Investigations have also revealed that there were suspects in China's steel and iron enterprises who were providing commercial secrets for them and were involved in commercial bribery.

By:Sigrid Caroline Schroder
DC Business Strategies Examiner

US sales of Microsoft Word are banned as of October. Most businesses think of IP from the light side: protecting their inventions, innovations, creations and "aha moments" from the onslaught of competition. But the dark side is the reality that their work might infringe someone else's work.

You can be shut down and your profits shorn. Don't rely on being able to invalidate a competitor's patent, distinguish your trademark or argue fair use. Don't gamble on trade secrets; trade secrets will be revealed to competitors at trial. Don't profit on purloined trade secrets. Don't rely on not getting caught: your competitors and potential competitors are also watching and the penalty is high. It's worth the few dollars on the front end to make sure that you have the IP worth selling--or going IPO. If it means licenses and royalties, then that is the reality you must face,

To continue reading this interesting article from The Examiner, click here.

By Denise Jewell Gee
NEWS NIAGARA REPORTER

The Niagara Tourism and Convention Corp. has been selective in what it has chosen to disclose to the City of Niagara Falls so that some records don't end up in the hands of the public. That information it has withheld includes:

• Salaries of its employees, aside from its president.

• Receipts or detailed expense reports for travel that has included overseas trips.

• How much private consultants are paid.

Roughly 80 percent of the Niagara Tourism and Convention Corp.'s $2.5 million annual budget comes from public sources -- hotel taxes and casino revenue collected by Niagara Falls, Lockport and Niagara County.

But the not-for-profit organization has determined that releasing some information about how that money is spent would either give away "trade secrets" and "competitive advantages" or violate the privacy of its employees.

To continue reading this interesting article from The Buffalo News, click here.

By Proactive Investors China

China has long been tackling the steel industry's overcapacity, but has now called the industry "chaotic" and linked the issue to the recent Rio scandal, in which four employees of the mining giant have been charged for trade secrets infringement and bribery.

China's Industry and Information Technology Minister Li Yizhong said that "with China's steel industry in turmoil over the Rio Tinto scandal," the country "needs to have more say in the global iron ore trade."

By LINDA ULRICH
Lincoln Journal Star

When the Homebuilders Association of Lincoln began in the early 1950s, the Petersons and other builders built an early model ranch, called a "trade secrets" home, in conjunction with the National Association of Homebuilders. That home was a predecessor of the Parade of Homes.

Both Peterson and Strauss cut costs through innovative construction concepts. The Petersons, for example, used two sides of drywall with spacers for the electrical to divide bedrooms. They bought materials in mass and knew exactly how many 2-by-4s, pieces of drywall or even nails they would need to build a particular home.

By Alicia DeLeon Torres

I'm on the Los Angeles to San Diego Amtrak afternoon commuter train. The guy across from me is looking at his laptop screen. As he scrolls through his documents, I easily see the pretty graphics, staff assignments and other information I'm sure that I - and others on the train - are not meant to see. If you think I'm spying, I'm not. I'm annoyed!

He shares with an employee (and about 6 rows of passengers - that's 24 people) that the:

• product portfolio isn't finished (starting with they don't how many units to buy),
• launch date may get push backed (someone has been 'slacking' and now the team isn't
ready),
• marketing strategy is 'wide open' (they're thinking twitter and social marketing sites), and
• team should target certain print media ('listed which ones should be approached).

He takes a swig of free wine, then goes right into the next subject.

To continue reading this interesting article from San Diego News Network, click here.

VANCOUVERITE

SANTA ANA, CA-- The full extent of China's economic and military espionage in the U.S. has come to light following the conviction of a former Rockwell and Boeing engineer from Orange County.

In his ruling read  in court,  Carney found Chung guilty of conspiracy to commit economic espionage, six counts of economic espionage to benefit a foreign country, one count of acting as an agent of the People's Republic of China and one count of making false statements to the FBI.

Each charge of economic espionage carries a maximum possible penalty of 15 years in federal prison and a $500,000 fine. The charge of acting as an agent of a foreign government carries a maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine.

To read the complete article please click here.

Reported by: WPTV staff

BOCA RATON, FL- Boca Raton Police have arrested two men on suspicion of stealing trade secrets from the company they worked for.

The company alleged that its chief operating officer, Christian Matteis, and Leonard Tambasco, the executive flight director, had stolen office furniture and equipment, client lists and client information, and tampered with computer files.

When he flew to the Boca Raton office from New York, the CEO says he found it had been emptied of desks, computers, file cabinets, and more.

To continue reading this interesting article from West Palm Beach News, click here.

By: John Garnaut, Beijing

Three weeks ago, global strategy chief Doug Ritchie checked into Shanghai's downtown Four Seasons hotel to find the entire floor had been cleared of other guests. His only companion was Ian Bauert, Rio's global head of iron ore marketing, who had arrived before him. Plain-clothed officers proceeded to shadow their every move across town.

A statement on a Government website said the Shanghai State Security Bureau found Hu and his colleagues stole and obtained secrets by "bribing internal staff of Chinese steel companies".

"This has caused huge loss to China's national economic security and interests," it said.

To continue reading this interesting article from Business Day, click here.

By: Chris Powell, Secretary/Treasurer, GATA

Yesterday GATA's Washington-area law firm filed with the Federal Reserve Board an administrative appeal of the Fed's most recent refusal to grant us access to the agency's records involving the U.S. gold reserve.

By letter dated August 5, the Fed reported to us that 137 pages of documents being withheld contained information exempt from disclosure under authority of Exemptions 4 and 5 of the [Freedom of Information] Act.

We construe this as an admission that the U.S. gold reserve has been put into private hands to some extent or has been compromised in some way by possession by private interests, such as financial houses that trade in gold.

To continue reading this article from GoldSeek, please click here.

Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal:

Language Line Services Inc. and Tele-Interpreters LLC said they filed suit against Voiance Language Services LLC, alleging infringement of trade secrets.

Monterey-based Language Line said Voiance, which is based in Tucson, Ariz., is "using the unfair shortcut of hiring an executive from a competitor to gain access to trade secrets and customer information."

The suit, filed in superior court in Monterey, also alleges false advertising.

To continue reading this article from Biz Journals, click here.

By Jeffrey D. Neuburger

Unauthorized access to corporate information in general (regardless of the manner in which the items were obtained) may constitute trade secret misappropriation. Most states have enacted some version of the Uniform Trade Secrets Act (UTSA), which defines the term very broadly to include not only a secret process or formula but also any other "information" that has economic value as a result of being kept secret.

Corporate documents containing information that would be valuable to a competitor, such as business plans and non-public financial information, can fit that definition under the proper circumstances.

To continue reading this interesting article from MediaShift, click here.

By:Robert Napper and Beth Burger
Bradenton Herald

Manatee County Sheriff's Office detectives arrested Darrin Stephen Zaza, 44, after viewing surveillance video of him entering a conference room in a local Comfort Suite motel, where his former boss was planning to hold the event.

Zaza is accused stealing documents containing the victim's list of suppliers, bank account information, inventory lists, show schedules and business contacts. He also took documents containing the victim's business strategy and future plans, according to the sheriff's report.

Detectives arrested Zaza on a felony charge of theft of trade secrets.

By: Nick Eaton: Microsoft reporter
Seattle Pi Blogs

The advertising agency Microsoft hired to promote Bing has been sued for patent infringement over a commercial for the search engine during NBC's "The Philanthropist," according to Advertising Age.

Denizen, a small ad company registered in Delaware, claims an advertising concept in which a commercial serves to advance the plot of the TV show during which it runs.

In its complaint, Denizen says company representatives met with London-based WPP and disclosed trade secrets regarding the patented advertising technique, agreeing to confidentiality. Among other charges, Denizen alleges JWT and WPP misappropriated trade secrets and broke their contract with Denizen.

By Steve Green

High-end photography companies with galleries at Las Vegas casino-resorts may be headed for a legal showdown, with one accusing the other of misappropriating its trade secrets.

Peter Lik USA says it has galleries in Las Vegas at the Forum Shops at Caesars, the Venetian and Mandalay Place; and elsewhere around the country and in Peter Lik's native Australia. These showcase the works of Lik, a landscape photographer.

Peter Lik USA charges in the lawsuit that Scottland, a former Peter Lik employee, has violated his noncompete agreement by soliciting the business of Peter Lik customers on behalf of The Lough Road.

To continue reading this article from Las Vegas Sun click here.

By: JIMMIE E. GATES

A judge will decide whether all documents from an investigation to determine if then-Hinds County Circuit Judge Bobby DeLaughter was improperly influenced during a civil case by former Hinds County District Attorney Ed Peters should be kept confidential.

Hinds County Circuit Judge Swan Yerger also will decide if some documents from the investigation can be given to federal prosecutors or other government officials to determine if there was any criminal wrongdoing on the part of DeLaughter and Peters.

The actual lawsuit, however, has nothing to do with Peters, but is about the alleged theft of trade secrets by one of the companies' former employees.

To continue reading this interesting storty from The Clarion-Ledger, click here.