Trade Secrets

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By Andrea Anapolksy

          In the wake of jury selection for the Coco-Cola Co. theft trade secrets trial and Apple Computer’s two-year quest to discover who leaked trade secret information about an unreleased Apple product to several online blog sites, misappropriation of a company’s trade secrets may have become increasingly more difficult to prevent. This article will be the first of  a two-part series which examines the trade secrets doctrine and recent developments related to it.  This article in particular will assess the doctrine of trade secrets under California law and will offer available remedies on avoiding misappropriation.  Continue Reading A Refresher on the Trade Secrets Doctrine, Part I

By Audrey A. Millemann

            A business’s intellectual property may be its most valuable asset. Whether it is biotechnology, trade names, business methods, or computer software, intellectual property should be protected to the greatest extent possible in order to maximize the value of the business. This article summarizes the types of intellectual property protection that are available.

Continue Reading HOW TO PROTECT YOUR CLIENTS’ IP

By, Pam Bertani & April Gatling

Recent controversial media attention regarding the alleged misrepresentation and conveyance of pharmaceutical clinical trial results has spawned action in Congress. Currently pending federal legislation could, if enacted, require publicly accessible, detailed disclosure of clinical trial test results for pharmaceutical and biological products. Such a disclosure requirement will undoubtedly have a significant industry and consumer protection impact on the continued development and sale of pharmaceutical products in the United States.
Continue Reading Clinical Trial Data Publication – And the FACT Act

Many growing businesses face the problem of having ideas that will give them a leg up on the competition or new products that will revolutionize their industries but lack the financial or intellectual resources to, without the assistance of partners, bring those ideas to fruition or to bring the products to market. Even more established businesses often find it necessary to supplement their own internal resources with ideas and products from other businesses. These are situations in which confidentiality agreements become an important means of intellectual property protection for such businesses.
Continue Reading Do’s and Dont’s of Confidentialty Agreements

By R. Todd Wilson

All businesses have trade secrets. Stated slightly differently, every business has information that it would rather keep confidential. A trade secret can be any useful information that is not generally known. Trade secrets encompass both technical information such as formulas, designs, tools, manufacturing processes, and computer source code as well as business secrets including customer lists, employee lists, financial and accounting data, product plans and marketing plans. Such “confidential” or “proprietary” information is usually essential to the success of the business. Often, however, companies do little or nothing to protect that knowledge.
Continue Reading Trade Secrets: Protection Best Practices