By: Rita Wold

Columbia Sportswear has settled a trade-secrets lawsuit against Crocs, the Niwot-based maker of colorful shoes.

The lawsuit stemmed from an incident in which Crocs hired a Columbia employee as an independent contractor.

"Columbia alleged claims of misappropriation of trade secrets, intentional interference with contract, and aiding and abetting the employee's breach of his duty of loyalty to Columbia," according to the press release.

Crocs, in the release, expressed regret for hiring a Columbia employee and said it was pleased the dispute was resolved. "Crocs respects third-party trade secrets, intellectual property and employment-related obligations," the release stated.

To read the complete news article from The Denver Post, please click here.

By: Loretta Hunt

Zuffa LLC, the parent company to the Ultimate Fighting Championship and World Extreme Cagefighting, filed suit against prominent fighter agent Ken Pavia and Bellator Fighting Championships last Wednesday in Clark County District Court in Nevada.

In the complaint, which was first brought to light by Yahoo Sports on Thursday, Zuffa accuses Pavia, Bellator, and other unnamed defendants of conspiring to and misappropriating documents and information it has deemed as "trade secrets" to the rival promotion for its own personal gain in the MMA market. Zuffa's complaint seeks unspecified damages, as well as injunctive relief preventing all defendants from using said information moving forward.

To read the complete article from Sherdog, please click here.

By: Alison Frankel

Santa Ana, Calif., federal district court judge David Carter issued an order setting a trial date of Jan. 11 for Mattel's broad array of claims against the upstart doll maker MGA Entertainment.

In a separate order Monday, Judge Carter denied MGA's motion to dismiss Mattel's RICO claims, finding that Barbie's parent company adequately pled predicate acts of mail fraud, wire fraud, and obstruction of justice (among other things) against MGA. He also refused to dismiss Mattel's theft of trade secret claims against its bitter rival.

To continue reading this interesting news article from The American Lawyer, please click here.