By BEN WORTHEN

Oracle Corp. demanded Thursday that Hewlett-Packard Co. drop its lawsuit against a former executive who joined Oracle after it became clear that copies of sensitive data H-P alleged the executive made onto an external hard drive were in fact made by H-P.

H-P's lawsuit against the executive, Adrian Jones, who is now a senior vice president at Oracle, was "based on a knowingly false allegation," according to Oracle's demand letter, a copy of which was reviewed by the Wall Street Journal. "HP has no evidence to support its case against Mr. Jones and, frankly, it never did."

H-P now concedes that Mr. Jones didn't back up his computer with the Western Digital hard drive in February. Instead, that device was connected to the computer and the files copied in December by H-P, which was investigating Mr. Jones for ethics violations.

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CTS Cement Manufacturing Corp.

CYPRESS, CA - The Court of Appeal of the State of California affirmed an earlier ruling by the Los Angeles Superior Court of California against Ultimax Cement and its principal, Hassan Kunbargi, in their alleged trade secret misappropriation case against CTS Cement Manufacturing Corporation and Edward K. Rice.

In 2006, Ultimax Cement and Hassan Kunbargi filed suit in California Superior Court against CTS and its Chairman, Edward K. Rice, alleging unfair competition and misappropriation of trade secrets. The suit was a follow-up to a 2002 patent infringement case brought by Ultimax, alleging that CTS had infringed three of its patents and stolen its trade secrets. In a January 2008 ruling, the U.S. District Court had dismissed Ultimax's trade secret claim.

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Joseph V. DeMarco, DeVore & DeMarco LLP

Damage inflicted by the theft of a company's intellectual property by a rival or former employee is one of the most devastating events a business can suffer.
This powerful view has been recently reinforced by United States Attorney Preet Bharara, the top New York federal prosecutor, through a string of Wall Street-related cases.

Theft of IP damages the confidence of investors and can spark panic amongst shareholders. It has the potential to obliterate companies.
Prosecutions and convictions in the US clearly show that big firms and prosecutors are intent on cracking down on this kind of criminal activity.

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By Ed Marcum

A federal judge Wednesday sentenced two Greenback engineers convicted of stealing trade secrets from Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. to four years probation and 150 hours of community service.

Federal prosecutors had urged U.S. District Court Judge Thomas W. Phillips to give Clark Alan Roberts and Sean Edward Howley at least 10 months in prison, however the judge noted that neither man has a prior criminal history and both have ample family and community support.

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Tire Business staff report

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has affirmed a District Court order, granting a preliminary injunction against Satisfied Brake Products and its Vice President Robert Kahan for misappropriation of Affinia Group Inc. trade secrets.
Affinia's trade secrets allegedly were stolen by a former employee at Brake Parts Inc. (BPI), an Affinia company.

In issuing its order, the Appeals Court confirmed that Affinia's brake pad formulations are protected as trade secrets, according to an Affinia press release, and that Satisfied Brake obtained these secrets improperly through the payment to former Affinia employee David Lewis.

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By: JIM SPENCER
Minneapolis Star Tribune

An industrial spy tries to steal $20 million in trade secrets from Minnesota-based Valspar paints. The kingpin of a Houston-based drug counterfeiting ring makes millions plugging his fake pharmaceuticals into the pipeline of Britain's socialized medical system. In Washington, the Defense Department unwittingly buys and installs knockoff Cisco computer software to track troop movements.

The theft of intellectual property has grown into an organized crime wave that costs U.S. businesses up to $250 billion a year in lost revenue and pilfered ideas, officials estimate. The problem extends from charade Chanel perfume to pirated movies to bogus cancer drugs. It includes the theft and marketing of chemical formulas and designs for medical devices.

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