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Two New England craft beer companies are dealing with a hangover from a contentious trade secret dispute. Massachusetts-based franchisor Craft Beer Stellar, LLC recently filed a complaint in Massachusetts federal court against Maine-based franchisee Hoppy Days, LLC. Plaintiff brought breach of contract claims in addition to alleging violations of the Defend Trade Secrets Act, the

Last week, airplane manufacturer Bombardier filed a complaint against Mitsubishi Aircraft Corporation and former Bombardier employees in the Western District of Washington alleging violations of the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act and the Washington Uniform Trade Secrets Act, tortious interference, and breach of contract. Bombardier claims as trade secrets its designs, testing, and regulatory “certification

Noncompete agreements are nothing new, in fact, 18% of all U.S. workers are subject to noncompetes while an estimated 70% of senior executives and 43% of engineers are bound by noncompetes. Employers frequently use noncompetes—which may restrict former employees from working for or starting competing businesses for a set period of time—to protect a company’s

On September 14, 2018, a former scientist at GlaxoSmithKline (“GSK”) pled guilty to conspiring to steal trade secrets from his former employer. Dr. Tao Li was accused of stealing confidential information about anti-cancer drugs from a GSK facility in Upper Merion, Pennsylvania after conspiring with other GSK employees who provided information to him via email,

In May 2018, U.S. District Judge Katherine B. Forrest of the Southern District of New York granted PepsiCo, Inc.’s (“Pepsi”) summary judgment motion against ScentSational Technologies, LLC (“ScentSational”).

ScentSational, a company that develops methods of delivering scents in food and beverage packaging to alter a consumer’s taste perception, alleged that Pepsi learned its trade secrets

On August 1, 2018, Xiaoqing Zheng was arrested for alleged theft of trade secrets belonging to General Electric (“GE”). Mr. Zheng, a graduate of MIT and an engineer who worked in the Power division of GE, is accused of stealing dozens of encrypted computer files related to turbine operation. In order to get the files

On March 15, 2018, HouseCanary, a data-analytics startup, was awarded $706 million in damages by a jury in Texas in its lawsuit against Title Source, an affiliate of Quicken Loans. The jury found Title Source misappropriated trade secrets including HouseCanary’s technology and appraisal analytics and breached both confidentiality and other agreements between the parties. While

Just last week, Lex Machina introduced its newest module which will cover trade secrets litigation – one of the most requested additions to this valuable analytical platform.

Lex Machina is an important tool for all trade secret litigators, drawing from nearly 10,000 trade secret cases in federal court since 2009 to provide in-depth strategic insights