Protecting Intellectual Assets

Trade secrets are among a company’s most valued assets, often providing important competitive advantages. It is imperative that these secrets are protected from loss to competitors. Companies must also ensure that their own activities do not give rise to assertions of misappropriating trade secrets from others.

These issues are particularly important as joint ventures, partnerships and confidential relationships with employees, customers and vendors have become standard operating practices for growing a business.

These situations often arise when an employee or group of employees depart, to start a new venture or join a competitor. Regardless of what side our clients are on, we bring deep experience and practical strategic and tactical advice to bear to avoid trouble before it arises, or cope with situations once an issue becomes apparent. We also offer training and practical guidelines for protecting trade secrets and sensitizing employees and management to issues before such issues arise.

Broad-based Experience

Our Intellectual Property, Complex Business Litigation and Labor and Employment groups bring exceptional resources to our trade secrets practice, ensuring that all of our clients’ intellectual assets are protected to the fullest, and all relevant legal issues are dealt with in a coordinated strategic manner. We work with businesses across the commercial and industrial spectrum—from consumer products to health care and pharmaceuticals to computer devices and software—to establish and improve trade secret protection programs.

We further advise businesses on the employment of executives and research and development employees, and draft a variety of employment agreements and policies that address such issues as intellectual property ownership, trade secret protection, non-competition and the non-disclosure of confidential and proprietary business information.

We have litigated trade secret cases in state and federal courts, relying on common law, state statutes and federal statutes governing corporate espionage and other misappropriation of trade secrets to find the right solutions for our clients.

Representative Experience

• We successfully represented Bain Capital and a venture-financed portfolio company in a large trade secret dispute.
• We represented Dunkin’ Brands in connection with a significant executive non-competition dispute with Starbucks.
• We successfully represented EnerNOC, a publicly held energy company, in trade secret litigation against a former employee and competitor. (EnerNOC, Inc. v. Ramirez)
• We successfully represented Gillette in non-competition and trade secret litigation against a former employee. (The Gillette Company v. Rossochacki)
• We are representing Hooters of America in litigation brought against a former executive for misappropriation of sensitive trade secrets and other confidential and proprietary information. (Hooters of America, LLC v. La Cima Restaurants)
• We represented Motorola in a trade secret action relating to microprocessor technology. The case settled before trial. (Motorola v. Intel)
• We successfully represented PC Connection, Inc., a public company, in enforcing a non-competition agreement against the former CEO of one of its subsidiaries, who was preliminarily enjoined from working for a company competitor with which he had commenced employment as its president.
• We represented Saifun Semiconductors in a patent and trade secret case involving a new generation of computer memory devices. The case settled favorably soon after Saifun filed a complaint, which resulted in the parties establishing a business relationship that included substantial value flowing to Saifun. (Saifun Semiconductors v. AMD and Fujitsu)
• We represented Silicon Laboratories in a patent and trade secret case, including a Markman hearing, related to modems and digital access arrangement circuitry. The case was settled before trial. (Silicon Laboratories Inc. v. Analog Devices and 3Com Corporation)
• We successfully represented Sonus Networks in trade secret litigation involving a former employee. (Sonus Networks, Inc. v. MacLeod)
• We successfully resolved a trade secret dispute in which our client accused a major consumer products manufacturer of industrial espionage to gain information concerning our client’s development of a highly confidential new component of a manufacturer’s product. After our team was brought in to take over the litigation, we implemented an aggressive strategy that led to a very favorable negotiated resolution.
• We represented a leading maker of commercial video networking equipment against their former top North American salesman and their chief rival. We secured an injunction and highly favorable cash settlement on behalf of our client.
• We represented a leading chip maker in negotiated resolution of patent infringement and trade secret theft against a group of former employees who left to start a new venture.
• We represented a leading technology development company against their product designer on claims of patent infringement and trade secret theft.
• We successfully represented a technology company and two senior-level employees in defense of a non-competition and trade secret lawsuit brought against it by a competitor. The lawsuit alleged sweeping violations of state trade secret and unfair competition law, and was withdrawn without any settlement payment changing hands.
• We represented departing employees of Chemrisk USA in successfully dismissing claim of breach of contract and trade secret theft against the employees and their new entity, Novatox.
• We successfully represented a departing employee of Lumber Liquidators and his new retail chain entity in arbitration and secured dismissal of all trade secret claims and no injunction against new company Wholesale Woodfloor Warehouse.
• We have additionally represented a wide variety of clients in trade secret and unfair competition litigation, including State Street Bank, Boston Consulting Group, TriMark USA, Onward Technologies, Mercury Interactive and Medley Health.
• We are continuing to advise several large hedge fund clients about the implementation of a comprehensive intellectual property protection strategy.

Complete IP Management Solutions

Our team effectively integrates patent, trademark and copyright protection into an overall strategic plan for protecting a company's intellectual property. We aggressively enforce these protections around the globe.

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