Posts Tagged: James Pooley
Take Heed: Lessons from the Top Trade Secret Cases of 2020
One of the uniquely fascinating aspects of trade secret disputes is that they are laced with unbridled emotions, accusations of treachery, and actors who angrily disagree over …
When it Pays to Talk About Your Secrets
The conversation begins, “Can you keep a secret?” “Yes, of course,” they say. What happens next? Naturally, you tell them what it is that you are going …
It’s 10:00 PM: Do You Know Where Your Secrets Are?
In the wake of urban unrest in the early 1960s, local governments imposed nightly youth curfews, and a Massachusetts legislator suggested that all radio and television stations …
Don’t Focus on the Fight: When it Comes to Trade Secrets, it’s the Transaction that Counts
Tuning in to the recent sentencing of Anthony Levandowski for criminal trade secret theft, I was reminded of the wise observation about relationships, that remembering the ending …
Patents are from Mars, Trade Secrets are From Venus
Back in ancient times, in this case 1990, John Gray, an obscure “relationship counselor” with a correspondence degree in psychology, was perplexed. The communication problems of the heterosexual …
The Transmissibility of Information: How Your Trade Secrets Are Like a Virus
If you run a business that depends on data to drive success — and what business doesn’t these days? — this tendency of information assets to escape is …
You Own It, Now What Are You Going to Do with It? – Why Trade Secrets Are Treated Like Property: Part 2
In last month’s post, Part 1 of this series, we considered the view of European academics that trade secrets are not “intellectual property” because they don’t …
It’s About Control, Not Exclusion: Why Trade Secrets Are Treated Like Property, Part 1
Sometimes it seems that trade secrets are always fighting for respect. I recently ran into a friend who teaches at a European university. He somehow found a …
Trusting Your Secrets to the Government
According to Merriam-Webster, the “Word of the Year for 2019 is “they” when used in the singular, typically to avoid ascribing a gender to the person being referred …
The Dark Side of Secrecy: What Theranos Can Teach Us About Trade Secrets, Regulation and Innovation
The spectacular failure of blood-testing firm Theranos is the subject of a riveting book, Bad Blood by investigative reporter John Carreyrou, and an engaging documentary, “The Inventor” …
Five Tips for Keeping Safe with Your Head in the Cloud
Management of trade secrets is fraught with competing interests. There is the tradeoff between security and inconvenience—for example, the annoying wait for a special code to …
Of Supply Chains and Fireworks: A Trade War with China is Easy to Lose
Over the course of two weeks, the United States has imposed tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of Chinese goods and has blacklisted Huawei, the world's …
Reactions Roll in On Congress’s Proposed 101 Framework: ‘The Right Approach’ or ‘A Swing and a Miss’?
Yesterday, members of congress announced in a press release a proposed framework to fix patent eligibility law in the United States.Reactions to the framework were mixed. …
A Lack of Focus on Trade Secrets Can Pose Serious Risks
We all talk about the importance of data as business assets, but when it comes to buying and selling the companies that own them, we seem not …
Of Secret Sales and Public Uses: The Practical Consequences of the Supreme Court’s Helsinn Decision
It seemed like a trade secret trifecta when Congress in 2011 passed the America Invents Act (AIA). Although the statute was aimed at patent reform, it made three …
