A U.S. District Judge in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania has allowed several claims to proceed to trial following a motion for summary judgment by defendants in Ozburn-Hessey Logistics, LLC v. 721 Logistics, LLC, et al, No. 12-0864 (April 4, 2014). The allegations in the case go beyond the typical defection of an employee or two to … Continue Reading
Jackson Lewis e-discovery guru Ralph Losey has posted an article about the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (“CFAA”) on his e-discovery blog ediscoverylawtoday. Losey posits that more courts may be turning to the minority application of the CFAA as applying only to acts of unauthorized access, as opposed to unauthorized use. As he states in part: … Continue Reading
Our colleague Jason C. Gavejian has written about an interesting case in New Jersey involving the criminal prosecution of an employee who took highly confidential documents from her employer to support her employment discrimination suit. The decision distinguishes a 2010 New Jersey Supreme Court ruling in which the court held that an employee who copied employer records for use in … Continue Reading
On November 12, 2013, A court in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts issued a decision concerning the ongoing debate about the meaning of “exceeding authorized access” under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Moca Systems, Inc. v. Bernier, No. 13-10738-LTS (D. Mass. Nov. 12, 2013). MOCA Systems, Inc. filed suit against its former … Continue Reading
Robert K. Jones and Stephen B. Coleman from our Phoenix office have written on the Jackson Lewis website about a significant new court of appeals decision in Arizona striking down restrictive coveants in an employment agreement as overbroad. The article can be viewed here: Confidentiality, Non-Compete Agreements Held Unenforceable against Former Employee, Arizona Court Holds.… Continue Reading
The Court of Appeal for California’s Fourth Appellate District recently confirmed that the California Uniform Trade Secrets Act (CUTSA), a broad statute intended to be the last word in trade secret misappropriation cases, does not preclude separate but related common law claims, so long as these claims are not based entirely on the trade secret … Continue Reading
The inevitable disclosure doctrine is a common law doctrine that has been used by some courts to prevent a former employee from working for a competitor, even in the absence of a non-compete, because the former employee’s new job duties would inevitably require him to rely upon, use or disclose his former employer’s trade secrets. This … Continue Reading
Texas has joined 47 other states and the District of Columbia in adopting the Uniform Trade Secrets Act. Jackson Lewis has posted an article on its website describing the new law which will go into effect on September 1, 2014. Now, only Massachusetts and New York have yet to pass some form of the Uniform … Continue Reading
Plaintiff pro se Linda Eagle, the former president of banking education company Edcomm, Inc. ended up empty handed even though she prevailed on the merits of her claims of invasion of privacy by misappropriation of identity in her federal lawsuit filed over the alleged hijacking of her LinkedIn account by her former employer following the termination of her employment. … Continue Reading
When an executive search firm bought the goodwill and other assets of a similar firm and learned that the individual sellers took client lists and diverted business in violation of their non-compete agreements, it terminated the sellers’ employment and sued them and other third-party defendants for violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (“CFAA”) as well … Continue Reading
Regardless of where one stands philosophically on the merits of working from a physical office where greater collegiality can be fostered, versus working from home where personal efficiency and convenience can be maximized, the fact is that most companies have some employees who work from home, and nearly all companies have employees who work remotely from … Continue Reading
A federal court in the Northern District of Mississippi has allowed a plaintiff in an employment law dispute to conduct an on-site inspection for purposes of videotaping the machine which he formerly operated in Morton v. Cooper Tire & Rubber Co., (N.D. Miss. Dec. 10, 2012). Morton, an amputee with a prosthetic leg, asserted that he was denied a reasonable … Continue Reading
A U.S. District Judge in Connecticut recently issued an injunction against a former employee of Amphenol Corp and his new employer, TE Connectivity, Ltd, despite the lack of any evidence of competition in breach of his non-compete agreement. The decision in Amphenol v Paul, Civ. No. 3:12cv543 (D. Conn. Nov. 9, 2012), involved a former business unit director of Amphenol who had been … Continue Reading
Kevlar (R), a high-strength para-aramid fiber created by E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company and famously used in body armor for soldiers and police officers, is the subject of a recent criminal indictment by the U.S. Justice Department against Kolon Industries, Inc. and several of its executives. According to the October 18, 2012 press … Continue Reading
