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The California Office of the Attorney General issued its first opinion interpreting the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) on March 10, 2022, addressing the issue of whether a consumer has a right to know the inferences that a business holds about the consumer. The AG concluded that, unless a statutory exception applies, internally generated inferences that a business holds about the consumer are personal information within the meaning of the CCPA and must be disclosed to the consumer, upon request. The consumer has the right to know about the inferences, regardless of whether the inferences were generated internally by the business or obtained by the business from another source. Further, while the CCPA does not require a business to disclose its trade secrets in response to consumers’ requests for information, the business cannot withhold inferences about the consumer by merely asserting that they constitute a “trade secret.”Continue Reading California AG Interprets “Inferences” Under CCPA

A trade secrets spat between rival self-driving car companies WeRide Corp. and AllRide.AI Inc. has ended in settlement, but not before the Northern District of California imposed terminating sanctions against the defendant AllRide for its “staggering” spoliation of evidence when it intentionally purged emails and email accounts, wiped laptops and servers, and corrupted key source code.

The suit began in late 2018, when WeRide brought claims against Jing Wang (its former CEO), Kun Huang (its former Head of Hardware Technology), and AllRide, the competing company started by Wang and Huang. The claims included trade secrets allegations under the Defend Trade Secrets Act and the California Uniform Trade Secrets Act, along with claims for defamation and intentional interference with prospective economic advantage. WeRide accused Wang, who left WeRide to launch AllRide, of soliciting Huang to join him at his new company, and accused both of stealing WeRide’s trade secrets and immediately using them at AllRide. In April 2019 the Court granted WeRide a preliminary injunction that specifically prohibited Wang, Huang, and AllRide from destroying relevant documents, and ordered Huang to make several electronic devices available for inspection by WeRide. But in October 2019, WeRide moved the Court for sanctions, claiming that AllRide had destroyed emails and key source code. Central to WeRide’s motion was the accusation that AllRide had allowed its email system to continue to implement a 90-day automatic deletion policy, resulting in the destruction of thousands of potentially relevant emails. WeRide also accused AllRide of deleting six email accounts and the source code it supposedly developed to compete with WeRide.
Continue Reading Autonomous Vehicle Competitors Resolve Trade Secrets Case Colored by “Staggering” Spoliation

When does a cause of action come close enough to a trade secret claim to become preempted by the California Uniform Trade Secrets Act (“CUTSA”)? CUTSA preempts statutory and common law claims “based upon misappropriation of a trade secret.” In other words, with some exceptions, claims predicated on trade secret misappropriation allegations may only be asserted through a CUTSA claim.

California courts have articulated two different CUTSA preemption tests: (1) the “common nucleus” test and (2) the “dependence” test. In many cases, the two tests will yield the same result. Sometimes, however, the tests will produce divergent outcomes.
Continue Reading Two Tests for Trade Secret Preemption Under California Law

Source: Claudia Künkel (Flickr)

A lawsuit seeking $1 billion in damages based on allegations that the rideshare company was founded based on stolen trade secrets can now move forward after a jury in San Francisco Superior Court decided last month that the plaintiff’s claim was timely filed. The complaint alleges that former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick and others misappropriated Plaintiff Kevin Halpern’s idea for a startup called Celluride Wireless Inc. – a peer-to-peer service enabling passengers to summon drivers and track them with their cell phones. Halpern claims that he disclosed information about his idea to Kalanick under the promise of secrecy around 2006. The Uber app was launched four years later.

In defense, Kalanick claims that Uber Chairman Garrett Camp, also an individual defendant in the lawsuit, came up with the idea that later became Uber when the two were in Paris. According to Kalanick and Camp, Camp’s initial concept was for a limo timeshare service.
Continue Reading Billion Dollar Trade Secret Misappropriation Lawsuit Against Uber to Move Forward

A federal district court in San Jose recently ruled, in WeRide Corp., et al. v. Kun Huang, et al., that employee non-solicitation agreements are “void” under California Business & Professions Code section 16600 because such agreements are an invalid restraint on employment. This is the second federal court opinion this year that has barred…