Trade Secret Misappropriation Rights: Defend Trade Secrets Act; National Law Review, 2/9/17

Craig S. Hilliard, National Law Review; 

Trade Secret Misappropriation Rights: Defend Trade Secrets Act

"In the recent past, a company would weigh the benefit of 1) filing a public patent with 20 year exclusivity and strong infringement remedies; or 2) choosing to keep the IP “secret” despite limitations on court actions and remedies. A balancing advantage for “trade secret” over patent is the indefinite period of protection. If the business keeps it well-hidden, it has a sort of quasi-monopoly over the “product.”

Unlike with patents, however, trade secret misappropriation rights have historically been limited. For example, if a suspected bad actor reverse-engineered a product protected by patent, it would be ruled an infringement with harsh penalties. For a trade secret however, accidental discovery or reverse-engineering are not protected rights. Both are valid defenses to a misappropriation claim...

Dealing with issues involving patents or trade secrets can be very complex. It is suggested that you consult with experienced legal council to assist with the process."

An overview of trade secrets; Lexology, 1/11/17

Liu, Shen & Associates, Lexology; An overview of trade secrets:

"An important form of intellectual property, trade secrets are increasingly attracting attention, particularly in regard to operational information such as customer lists and technical information in software. In China, trade secrets are mainly protected by the Law for Countering Unfair Competition and the Criminal Law."

MAN CHARGED IN SEED CORN THEFT MUST PAY $425,000 RESTITUTION; Associated Press, 12/22/16

David Pitt, Associated Press; MAN CHARGED IN SEED CORN THEFT MUST PAY $425,000 RESTITUTION:

"A federal judge said this week that a naturalized U.S. citizen from China who pleaded guilty to participating in a conspiracy to steal seed corn must pay the U.S. companies that made the seed $425,000.

Mo Hailong, 47, was living in Florida when he was arrested in December 2013. In his plea agreement with federal prosecutors in January, he admitted to being part of a conspiracy to send stolen DuPont Pioneer and Monsanto seed corn from fields in Iowa and Illinois to China, where scientists planned to reverse engineer it to reproduce its genetic traits...

The investigation began when DuPont Pioneer security staff in Iowa detected suspicious activity, including men crawling around in cornfields. The FBI planted GPS monitors on rental cars and tapped cellphones of some of the men."

Bluebeard as a Geek: Plundering in High-Tech: On ‘Halt and Catch Fire,’ It’s Imitation vs. Invention; New York Times, 5/30/14

Alessandra Stanley, New York Times; Bluebeard as a Geek: Plundering in High-Tech: On ‘Halt and Catch Fire,’ It’s Imitation vs. Invention:

"There are absolutists who still believe that everything on the Internet should be free and see themselves as partisans, not parasites. Their motto might as well be “intellectual property is theft.”

Some of those true believers may enjoy a new AMC drama, “Halt and Catch Fire,” which begins on Sunday and is set in Texas in the early 1980s, when PCs were still in their infancy, and IBM dominated the industry.

But it’s an odd show for most viewers to accept at face value. And not just because it’s hard to construct thrilling action sequences out of microchips, floppy disks and coffee breaks. In today’s era of high-tech billionaires and the cult of the start-up, this series goes back in time to glorify imitation, not innovation...

Even the title is so abstruse that an explanation is spelled out in block print at the beginning:

“HALT AND CATCH FIRE (HCF): An early computer command that sent the machine into a race condition, forcing all instructions to compete for superiority at once. Control of the computer could not be regained.”...

Buccaneering on the high seas, the kind that involves daggers, planks and rum, is romantic partly because it remains safely in the past. Copyright piracy, on the other hand, may be too close for comfort."