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Raija Horstman

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Tangibly launched in February as a solution for companies to manage their trade secrets. Tangibly offers two distinct products: (1) a cloud-based platform that provides a dashboard where users can manage their assets and associated people and (2) a platform designed to make it easy for companies to execute and track NDAs.

Tangibly’s founder and CEO Tom Londergan said that Tangibly is architected around five questions companies should be able to answer regarding their trade secrets:…
Continue Reading New Platform Launches to Manage a Company’s Trade Secrets

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Crowell & Moring presented a webinar discussing the most influential trade secret cases from 2021 along with new legal developments, including non-compete legislation and trade secret maintenance.

Partner Astor Heaven and Counsel Raija Horstman kicked off the conversation to discuss modern trade secret protection under the DTSA and the biggest damages from jury verdicts in 2021. Counsel Christine Hawes gave an overview of recent federal and state non-compete legislation, and Associate Dalton Hughes wrapped up the webinar by covering new legal implications for maintaining and identifying trade secrets.
Continue Reading Crowell & Moring Webinar Recap: “2021 Trade Secrets Year in Review and What Lies Ahead”

The Epic Systems Corp. (“Epic”) and Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. (“Tata”) trade secret case concerning damages, and most recently reported by us on September 17, 2020, may continue before the U.S. Supreme Court. Although the case was included in the Supreme Court’s conference schedule on September 27 and October 8, 2021, following those conferences, the Supreme Court has asked the U.S. government to weigh in on whether the Court should grant Epic’s April petition for certiorari.
Continue Reading The Epic Trade Secret Saga Continues – Will the Supreme Court take the case?

On June 8, 2021, the Third Circuit clarified the requirements for making a trade secret misappropriation claim under the Defend Trade Secrets Act (“DTSA”) in a decision vacating the District of New Jersey’s dismissal of a trade secret misappropriation lawsuit against a former employee and his current employer. In short, the Third Circuit’s decision took a more relaxed view than the District Court, finding that a trade-secret plaintiff need not “spell out the details of its trade secret” or have direct allegations of misappropriation and harm to avoid dismissal.
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Continue Reading The Third Circuit Clarifies DTSA Pleading Requirements, While Vacating Dismissal

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) is strongly encouraging cannabis producers to share information regarding their clinical studies with the FDA, so it, in turn, can better understand the effects of chronic use of cannabis. This will then help the FDA develop sound science-based policies and regulations relating to cannabis and cannabis derived products. But cannabis producers also understandably want to protect their trade secret information in this rapidly growing industry. The FDA’s DMF process may be the solution where everybody can win.
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Continue Reading High-ly Sensitive Information: Use of FDA’s DMF Process to Protect Cannabis Trade Secrets

A recent decision from the Fifth Circuit showcased the usefulness of the “discovery rule” for trade secret plaintiffs facing statute of limitations issues.  The court reversed the dismissal of a claim for misappropriation of trade secrets because the plaintiff could not have discovered the misappropriation using reasonable diligence within the applicable statute of limitations period.
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Continue Reading Fifth Circuit Rules Delayed Discovery of Misappropriation Not A Bar To Suit

First off, don’t worry, Coca-Cola’s super-secret trade secret recipe is still safe.  But on April 22, 2021, a jury in the Eastern District of Tennessee convicted a former Coca-Cola employee, Dr. Xiaorong (a/k/a Shannon) You, of stealing trade secrets related to BPA-free coatings for the inside of beverage cans for the Chinese Government. The Indictment alleged that the trade secret information cost almost $120 million to develop. The twelve-day in-person trial focused not just on the former employee’s wrong doing, but also on some the best practices Coca-Cola and Eastman Chemical Company used to protect the trade secrets at issue.
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Continue Reading Former Coca-Cola Employee Convicted of Stealing Trade Secrets for the Chinese Government

The Eleventh Circuit recently struck down an award of $4.5 million in damages after a jury determined that a manufacturer had misappropriated a shared trade secret.  AcryliCon USA, LLC (“AcryliCon”) and Silikal GmbH (“Silikal”) had a business relationship in which Silikal manufactured and AcryliCon distributed a proprietary flooring resin of superior compressive strength (1061 SW), and each claimed ownership of the 1061 SW formula trade secret to the exclusion of the other. While ownership of a trade secret is a critical issue in trade secret misappropriation claims, the Court did not address whether AcryliCon owned the trade secret because it determined that Silikal did not misappropriate the formula as a matter of law.
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Continue Reading Trade Secret Misappropriation or Breach of Contract? It can be a costly distinction.

As companies have pivoted to remote-working, it is increasingly important to pay attention to the risks of videoconferencing, particularly when trade secrets are involved. In a recent case, the Delaware Chancery Court ruled that Plaintiffs did not take reasonable steps to protect their trade secrets because they did not implement appropriate privacy measures on their Zoom calls.
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Continue Reading Who’s on the Line?: Protecting Your Trade Secrets on Zoom Calls

On December 20, 2020, the US Senate unanimously passed a new bipartisan bill designed to punish foreign individuals and corporations involved in intellectual property theft.

The Protecting American Intellectual Property Act was co-authored by Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., and Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md.  The bill requires a report to Congress every six months identifying:

  • any individual or firm that has engaged in, benefitted from, or materially assisted the significant theft of U.S. trade secrets, if that theft constitutes a major threat to the national security, foreign policy, economic health or financial stability of the United States; and,
  • the chief executive officers and board members of the reported firms and whether those individuals have benefitted from the significant theft of U.S. trade secrets.

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Continue Reading Senate Passed New Legislation to Punish Foreign Individuals and Corporations for IP Theft