Businesses regularly lose precious data, sometimes even "the crown jewels," through trade secret theft by departing employees, unscrupulous contractors and others. Although trade secret theft is estimated to cause billions of dollars in damage every year, no federal civil claim for trade secret misappropriation currently exists. State laws govern these assets, and they are inconsistently applied. Relief may be in sight.
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) recently announced that two major piracy websites, Popcorn Time and YTS, were shuttered following pro-MPAA court rulings in Canada and New Zealand.
Who's going where; who's doing what.
The question of whether the terms of a Chapter 11 plan providing for the treatment of secured creditor claims are binding on non-participating secured creditors has been ongoing. The U.S. Second Circuit recently weighed in on this issue as a matter of first impression.
Up until now, before a purported "purchaser" may join a class action targeting a product, the potential class member must make a showing that (s)he actually purchased the product and was potentially damaged by the alleged wrong. A recent Seventh Circuit decision, however, provides a decisive counterpoint to decisions in the Third and Eleventh Circuits.
Many companies that have had disputes with developers have been surprised to discover that the agreements signed, often without input from legal, failed to hold developers to measurable standards, give the company ongoing interest in deliverables, or provide meaningful remedies to problems that arise.
A hornbook principle of U.S. bankruptcy jurisprudence is that valid liens pass through bankruptcy unaffected. This longstanding tenet, however, is at odds with section 1141(c) of the Bankruptcy Code, which provides that, under certain circumstances, "the property dealt with by [a Chapter 11] plan is free and clear of all claims and interests of creditors," except as otherwise provided in the plan or the order confirming the plan.
Last month, the authors began discussion of a trend in New Jersey case law that has been moving that state toward the expansion of hospital liability through the continuous erosion of the statutorily imposed $250,000 charitable immunity cap. They continue their analysis of this trend and its consequences herein.
The issue of damages remains a hot topic at the Federal Circuit, with patentees being continuously reminded that damages must be apportioned to account for the value of patented features, as opposed to unpatented features, of an accused product. However, the vast majority of these cases involve apportionment in the context of reasonable royalties. Very little has been said about apportionment in a lost profits analysis.
Coverage disputes stemming from the flood of lawsuits brought by the FDIC against directors and officers of failed banks are far from over. The most heavily litigated issue is whether a lawsuit commenced by the FDIC as a receiver of a failed bank is precluded by the "insured v. insured" exclusion commonly contained in Directors and Officers liability ("D&O") policies.
