Source Code Sufficient to Prove Trade Secret
It is not uncommon for a business, whose former employee has joined or formed a competitor firm, to charge that the employee has misappropriated its trade secrets. Proving the charge is another...
View ArticleIntentional Misconduct Could Nullify Damages Limitations Clauses in...
We recently published an article in the Potomac Techwire regarding damages limitations clauses in commercial contracts. In a recent decision from the United States District Court for the Western...
View ArticleA Misrepresentation Made During a Contract Performance May Not Constitute Fraud
In a newly released opinion, the Virginia Supreme Court reaffirmed the Virginia rule that a fraud claim cannot be based upon one contracting party's false statements to another contracting party in...
View ArticleCourt Permits An Opposing Party's Lawyers to Interview a Company's Current...
When an unfair business practices case arises, like in other types of cases, a company wants to know as much as possible about the adverse company's prior internal discussions and processes that...
View ArticlePrivate Regulation of Business Competition Through State Statutes and Common...
The news lately is peppered by the federal governments' (lack of?) regulation of businesses, but how do state statutes and the common law regulate businesses? That is the question addressed in the...
View ArticleVirginia Court Limits Reach of Preemption Provision of Uniform Trade Secrets Act
Does the Virginia Trade Secrets Act preempt all related business tort claims? Not necessarily, according to a recent unfair business practices case from the Eastern District of Virginia. In E.I. DuPont...
View ArticleTortious Interference with Business Expectancy in the District of Columbia--...
A split has developed between District Court judges in the District of Columbia regarding the requirements to plead a count alleging tortious interference with business expectancy. In a post on June...
View ArticleMaryland's Highest Court Allows Direct Action by Shareholders Against...
Traditionally, in Maryland, as in many states, the fiduciary obligations of corporate directors run to the corporation and its shareholders as a class, rather than to individual shareholders. A recent...
View ArticleFailure to Produce Knowledgeable Corporate Designee for Depositions Results...
In unfair business practices cases, as with most civil cases involving companies, partnerships or other organizations, a party frequently wants to take a deposition of someone designated by the...
View ArticleMaryland Court Upholds Non-compete Covenant and Enters Prospective Permanent...
The United States District Court for Maryland recently granted summary judgment in a case upholding a covenant not to compete involving a former Director of Strategic Accounts for TEKsystems, Inc. In...
View ArticleThe Protocol: The Financial Services Industry Potentially Changes the Common...
This blog has discussed the concepts of employee fiduciary duties, proprietary and trade secret information and corporate raids in many contexts. But what if an entire industry or major players within...
View ArticleBreach of Contract Will Not Support Statutory Business Conspiracy Claim in...
In an important new case, the Supreme Court of Virginia has clearly held that breach of contract will not support a claim of statutory business conspiracy under Sections 18.2-499 and 500 of the Code of...
View ArticleEastern District of Virginia Holds that Minimum Contacts Must be Demonstrated...
Your Virginia company has been damaged by unfair business activities of another individual or business that is located outside of Virginia. You file a multi-count suit in federal court alleging both...
View ArticleA Virginia Court Redefines a LLC's Unanimous Consent Requirement to Permit...
A circuit court in Virginia was faced with the question of whether a Limited Liability Company can sue one of its three Members when, under the LLC’s Operating Agreement, the decision to file a law...
View ArticleCourt Recognizes Federal Claim for Employees' Theft of Electronic Documents
Some time ago (March 27, 2009), we wrote a post describing the applicability of the federal Computer Crimes and Abuse Act, 18 U. S. C. § 1030, (the “CFAA” or the “Act”) to unfair business practices...
View ArticlePress Releases Can Cause Waiver of Work Product
Statements made in a press release, if based on attorney work product information, may waive work product as to the subject matter of the statements. In E.I. DuPont de Nemours and Company v. Kolon...
View ArticlePublicly Available Software Code Can Be a Trade Secret if Compilation is Not...
A recent Fourth Circuit opinion analyzed when a software compilation can qualify for protection as a trade secret. The plaintiff company claimed that although its software used publicly-available...
View ArticleDistrict of Columbia Limits Applicability of Computer Fraud and Abuse Act
In a case of first impression, a federal district court in the District of Columbia has joined those courts that restrict the applicability of the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Previously, we...
View ArticleSpiteful Motives, Lacking Improper Conduct, do not Support Tortious...
In a recent opinion, the Supreme Court of Virginia held that actions motivated solely by ill will or personal spite, that don’t include improper conduct, do not support a claim for tortious...
View ArticleCopyright Infringement: Repeat Willful Violations Result in Permanent...
In a recent opinion, Seoul Broadcasting System Intl. v. Ro, an Alexandria U.S. district court granted Plaintiffs a permanent injunction and ordered steep damages against the defendants who were repeat...
View Article
