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"Defend Trade Secrets Act" - How Will This New Law Affect Your Business?
With a near unanimous (410-2) vote on April 27, 2016, the House passed the aDefend Trade Secrets Acta (aDTSAa). Having already been passed by the Senate (87-0), the legislation advances to President Obama, who has signaled that he will sign the bill into law. The law is drafted to go into effect on the day of its enactment, and will apply to misappropriation occurring on or after that date.
Read more...(wcsr.com).
Trade Secrets of the Assault Rifles
From the Daytona Beach News-Journal of Florida, a Florida contribution to the evolving role of trade secrets, concerning old-fashioned stealing, a vendetta against a former employee, and, of course, assault weapons.
The paper reports that two men -- Mark Hazelip and Jake Economou a were arrested and charged with stealing trade secrets from Tactical Machining of Deland, Florida, a company that produces upper and lower receivers for AR-15 rifles.
The two alleged stole computer programs, blueprints, drawings and a list of customers. Hazelip quit the company in January and went to work for a competitor, Daytona CNC . Economou was later fired from Tactical Machining. According to investigators, Hazelip talked of putting Tactical Machining out of business/
Instead, after a tip from another former employee working at Daytona CNC, the police aexecuted a search warrant at Daytona CNC and found the Tactical Machining blueprints and drawings for the gun parts and a spiral bound notebook with the name of clients in Hazelip's desk.aUncle Samas Economic Espionage a Not Looking for Your Trade Secrets
This follows on the heels of reports that the NSA has hacked into the systems of various foreign companies including a Brazilian state oil company.
The report quotes James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence:
aWhat we do not do, as we have said many times, is use our foreign intelligence capabilities to steal the trade secrets of foreign companies on behalf of, or give intelligence we collect, to US companies to enhance their international competitiveness or increase their bottom line.a
This issue, obviously, is far from settled.John Deere in Trade Secrets Dispute with Former Factory General Manager
From the Business Section of the Waterloo Cedar Falls (IA) Courier, a story concerning a trade secrets case by agricultural equipment maker Deere & Co. against the long-time general manager of its largest combine factory.
Deere is seeking injunctive relief against Eric Hansotia, who was hired by Deere competitor AGCO into a position that "significantly overlaps" his old job.
The case is pending in federal court in Illinois.
By the sound of the allegations, the case concerns both inevitable disclosure type claims, but also has claims that the defendant aIn his last four days of work . . . connected portable electronic storage devices, some of which computer logs indicate contained Deere trade secrets, to his Deere computer, and he may have kept those devices after his employment ended.a Chinese Trade Secrets Theft Hits US Universities
Now, in a new twist, Reuters reports that three Chinese researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center have been charged in federal court with bribery in connection with theft of trade secrets relating to MRI technology.
The researchers apparently received at least $400,000 in bribes to provide information to a Chinese Medical Imaging company, United Imaging Healthcare, and a Chinese government-backed research institute, Shenzen Institute of Advanced Technology.
The three were charged in federal court in the Southern District of New York where the US Attorney doesnat play.
Man Bites Dog!
Morning Whistle, an unsourced report that publisher and education company Pearson has been sued for stealing the trade secrets of a Chinese competitor, CentriPoint (China).
According to the report, Pearson VUE, Pearsonas computer-based testing division, acquired Certiport on May 15, 2012, but decided to suspend the online service of Certiport (China).
That company now claims that Pearson stole its client list under the pretense of an audit and informed customers of the change without prior consent of the other shareholders of Certiport (China).
An initial court date is scheduled for May 23, 2013.Trade Secrets Finally Gets Toward the Top of the National Agenda
You know trade secrets has finally hit it big when the subject is covered in USA Today and the report is on the Obama Administrationas a new strategy to combat the theft of American trade secrets.
The administration has released its 141-page Strategy on Mitigating the Theft of U.S. Trade Secrets. This comes just after the president signed an executive order adesigned to help U.S. computer networks guard against cyberattacks,a as USA Today put it.
The story contains comments from Victoria Espinel, the U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement coordinator.
In the words of USA Today:
aThe strategy includes diplomatic engagement with nations where incidents of trade secret theft are high, working with industries on the best ways to protect their secrets, and stepped up prosecutions of business espionage.a
The plan comes out at the same time as reports of Chinese Red Army hacking into U.S. computers.
Espinel says: "The administration will continue to act vigorously to combat the theft of American trade secrets that could be used by foreign companies or foreign governments to gain an unfair commercial advantage over U.S. companies."
Sounds like weare finally getting serious about a problem that has been allowed to grow for years.
Bratz-Mattel Doll Fight Ends Not with a Bang But a Whimper
Now it looks to be all over.
A prA(c)cis goes like this: designer leaves Mattel to go to MGA Entertainment where he designs the popular Bratz line of dolls. Mattell sues MGS for copyright infringement and gets a $100 million verdict and the rights to Bratz going forward.
The Ninth Circuit finds that amount excessive and sends the case back down to the trial court where the jury finds nothing for Mattel, but returns a $170 million verdict against Mattel on a counterclaim for theft of trade secrets, along with $137 million in attorneysa fees.
Now the Ninth Circuit vacates that verdict, finding it time-barred. The attorneysa fees, however, stick.
Itas time to find a cautionary tale here, but the case is so weird we may just need to chalk it up as a one-off.
A Video Overview of the Economic Espionage Act
From me (click the link), a short description of the recent changes in the EEA.Do Computer Fraud & Abuse Act Prosecutions Sometimes Go Too Far?
Offered here without commentary, an article from Slate concerning the recent suicide of Aaron Swartz who was set to go on trial next month for violations of the Computer Fraud & Abuse Act for unlocking a database of scholarly articles.
Prosecutors charging decisions a particularly the amount of prison time and penalties to be sought a are generally discretionary, rarely reviewable, and certainly subject to abuse (and not just under the CFAA).
There should be near unanimous agreement that what happened to Aaron is sad and, if an over-reaching prosecution played a role, something that ought to be rectified.
More on Economic Espionage Act Amendments
IP 360, a story concerning the amendments to the Economic Espionage Act.
The story quotes John Marsh of Hahn Loeser & Parks LLP as saying that the two bills passed by Congress represent "a strong commitment by the federal government to broaden the protections of trade secrets."
The bill, once itas signed by the President, will increase the maximum penalty for misappropriating trade secrets to benefit a foreign government from $500,000 to $5 million for individuals and also applies the law more broadly to the services industry.
The big question on tap for 2013: will Congress create a federal civil remedy for trade secrets theft as a cognate to the criminal statute represented by the EEA?
Amendment to Economic Espionage Act
In the Aleynikov case that we reported about over the years, the defendant managed to walk because the trade secrets he stole were not aproduceda for use in interstate commerce.
Under the new law, designed to reverse the earlier decision in Aleynikov, trade secrets used in or intended for use in interstate commerce are now included. The produced for requirement is gone.
Now say goodnight to the 112th Congress.
Chinaas Economic Espionage
Foreign Affairs, an excellent article by James A. Lewis on aChinaas Economic Espionage.a
According to Lewis, China is the worldas most aggressive practitioner of economic espionage, targeting key industries such as telecom, aerospace, energy and defense. Among other victims are Google and Nortel while some companies that are victims aoften conceal their losses.a
Lewis also argues that the national strategy of economic espionage actually serves to handicap Chinaas own development.
His final assessment:
Economic espionage lies at the heart of the larger issue of Chinaas integration into the international system -- the norms, practices, and obligations that states observe in their dealings with one another and with the citizens of other states. A failure to hold China accountable for espionage undermines efforts to bring Beijing into the fold. In the end, any peaceful rise requires that China play by the rules, even if it seeks to change them, rather than pretend they do not apply.
More Kolon Troubles
The US Attorney in Richmond has indicted the company and five officials, charging them with trade secrets theft. According to the Business Week report here the indictment includes a forfeiture claim seeking at least $225 million in alleged criminal proceeds from the company.
Civil trade secrets cases are bad enough. Criminal ones should be avoided at all costs.Huawei a Another Side of the Story
Farhad Manjoo, in Slate, says that whether a given piece of technology is dangerous is not determined by the nationality of the company that makes it.
As Manjoo puts it:
In reality, most devices are from everywhere. Your Android smartphone was designed in Korea, assembled in China, runs an operating system created in California, and works on a cellular carrier owned by a firm based in Germany. If youare worried about a certain companyas connections to China, you should be worried about pretty much every company in the tech industryathey all have large operations there, and, as a result of those operations, theyave all cut certain less-than-transparent deals with Chinese authorities.
http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2012/10/huawei_zte_are_chinese_telecom_firms_really_a_danger_to_national_security.htmlHuawei a Any Old Tech Company or Trade Secrets Threat?
On the heels of a recent report on 60 Minutes, Reuters (from LiveMint) reports on the controversy concerning Chinaas Huawei, the worldas second-largest maker of telecommunications gear.
The report quoted Rep. Mike Rogers, chair of the House Intelligence Committee: aIf I were an American company today ... and you are looking at Huawei, I would find another vendor if you care about your intellectual property; if you care about your consumersa privacy and you care about the national security of the United States of America.a
The committee is expected to release a report on the company later today (10/8/12).
Weall get a summary up as soon as itas released.
According to Reuters, Huawei has rejected charges that its expansion in the US poses a security risk and argues that it operates independently of the Chinese authorities.A Long, Long Injunction in DuPont Trade Secrets Case
We reported earlier on the $920 million damage award in favor of DuPont against South Koreaas Kolon for stealing trade secrets relating to the fibers used to make Kevlar body armor.
Now we learn from Bloomberg that the trial judge has not only upheld the verdict, but also imposed a 20-year injunction against Kolon to keep the company from producing any such fibers.
Injunctions, including permanent injunctions, are generally available under trade secrets statutes. Twenty years, though, is probably toward the outside range of what courts have ordered.
New Indictment in Bridgestone Tire Trade Secrets Case
Plain-Dealer is becoming our go-to source on current trade secrets stories.
Hereas another from that publication concerning a case out of Akron.
Xiaorong Wang, a former research scientist with Bridgestone Americas, has been indicted again on 15 counts of trade secrets theft and lying to the FBI.
The indictment claims that Wang burned six CDas of proprietary information on his way out the door after being told he would be let go. The secrets allegedly concern formulas and compound properties for race tires.
An earlier plea deal was rejected by the judge.
The FBI says that Wang provided the trade secrets to Shanghai Frontier Elastomer Co.Eaton-Frisby Trade Secrets Summary
Cleveland Plain Dealer concerning one of the strangest trade secrets cases ever, with North Carolina ties to boot.Set Back in Governmentas DuPont Trade Secrets Case
Weave reported previously on the economic espionage case concerning Pangang Group Steel Vanadium & Titanium Co Ltdas indictment for stealing DuPontas secret process for manufacturing titanium dioxide, a compound that makes products white.
Now comes this report from Reuters (in the Chicago Tribune) concerning a major set back in the governmentas case.
Federal judge Jeffrey White in the Northern District of California dismissed the indictment against the Chinese company on the grounds that service on its putative US agent was insufficient.
According to the report, White ruled that the government had not shown sufficient evidence that Pangang exercised enough control over the entity served for it to be considered an agent.
So we can now add service of process issues to the list of difficulties in trying to rein in Chinese economic espionage.
The government has until August to figure out what it will do next.
Weall report on what happens.Trade Secrets of the OLED TVas
Daytona Beach News-Journal is reporting what sounds like a potentially big trade secrets case.
According to the News-Journal, Samsung is accusing eleven people, including six of its own employees of stealing its trade secrets with respect to OLED (organic light-emitting diode) television technology.
The alleged bad-guy in the scenario: fellow Korean TV maker LG Display. Those two are currently fighting it out in OLED, believed to be the next generation of big-screen TV technology.
Samsung claims that LG stole its display technology and poached Samsung employees.Snyder's and Almeling's "Keeping Secrets: A Practical Introduction to Trade Secret Law and Strategy"
Womble Trade Secrets - after 16 great years at Womble Carlyle, I am departing for a litigation boutique that will be called Graebe Hanna & Sullivan, PLLC. Before advising you about a great new trade secret resource for all, I want to thank my friend and partner Press Millen for prompting me to co-author this blog with him back in 2006. There have been literally hundreds of thousands of visitors to this blog and I've met scores of attorneys and business people who reported perusing and using the blog for information. Thank you Press.
Our friends at O'Melveny & Myers, Darin Snyder and David Almeling, have written a practical and useful primer on trade secret law and the legal and practical treatment of trade secrets. The book, published by Oxford University Press, is divided into three parts: (a) the basics and some definitions useful in understanding trade secret law; (b) guidelines for creating a legal strategy for protecting trade secrets; and (c) practical guidance regarding business and legal responses to incidents of trade secret misappropriation or accusations of the same.
The anecdotes and breezy case studies in the book are rewarding - our favorite quote was from the founder of a company that designed underground mining vehicles and whose company was the victim of a key, respected employee's theft: "I was like the husband whose wife was getting it on the side." Messrs. Snyder and Almeling have shared with us their homework and case studies - just great stuff. We recommend this book to business litigators and non-specialists but it is great reading for those of us specializing in this area of law, as well. You can find the link to the book here: http://www.amazon.com/Keeping-Secrets-Practical-Introduction-Strategy/dp/0199797439/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1340990328&sr=8-3&keywords=almeling. http://www.amazon.com/Keeping-Secrets-Practical-Introduction-Strategy/dp/0199797439/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1340990328&sr=8-3&keywords=almelingChicago Trade Secrets Case Blows Up on Plaintiff
Take the case of Portola Packaging against its rival Logoplaste (reported here behind Litigation Dailyas paywall) but also nicely summarized in the Trial Communityas Litigation News Blog.
Logoplaste, in 2007, discussed the prospect of buying Portolaas Canadian subsidiary. They exchanged some putatively confidential information but never got a signed NDA. Negotiations broke off in February 2008. Shortly thereafter, Logoplaste landed a key Portola client.
Fast forward more than a year. Portola finally demanded return of the confidential information and filed suit claiming Logoplaste used the documents to steal the customer.
An Illinois state court judge ultimately ruled that Portola failed to protect its information. So far, pretty normal.
Hereas where it gets weird. The judge also ruled that because Portola designated its general counsel as a key witness, his emails were not protected by the attorney-client privilege.
Those emails apparently showed that he had urged Portola to sue just to hurt Logoplasteas business interests. And, he also apparently hired Logoplasteas regular counsel in an unrelated matter in order to create a conflict.
According to the report, although Portola claimed that its confidential documents were used to lure an employee away, the emails indicated the general counsel knew the employee approached Logoplaste first.
The result: a scathing opinion and an order that Portola will pay all of Logoplasteas attorneysa fees for the three years of litigation.
Ouch.
Appeals, no doubt, to follow.Another Big Verdict a Utah Style
For sheer dollars, though, this one out of state court in Utah is right up with those. The report is from the Salt Lake Tribune.
The scenario is a familiar one: Company A seeks bids to build a power plant and Company B, under a non-disclosure agreement, submits its proposal. Company A decides to pull the bidding and awards the contract to itself.
Many years and one trade secrets lawsuit later, Company A finds itself on the wrong side of $134 million verdict based on the contention that it used Company Bas trade secrets to build the power plant.
Company A is PacifiCorp (doing business in Utah as Rocky Mountain Power) and Company B is USA Power.
Now USA Power wants to double the verdict to $267 million.
Thatas a big one by trade secrets standards and weall let you know how it turns out.The Trade Secrets Dilemma a Sue and Disclose
News & Insight on an age-old problem in trade secrets, the fact that bringing suit often requires disclosing the trade secrets.
The article concerns a case in New York state court, MSCI v. Jacob and Axoma. MCSI, a software maker, claimed that its former employee, Jacob, misappropriated trade secrets in its software on behalf of his new employer, Axoma.
The judge overseeing the case made a critical ruling in a discovery dispute requiring the plaintiff to identify awith reasonable particularitya the trade secrets it contends were misappropriated. Only this, the judge ruled would allow the court to distinguish abetween the general knowledge in their field and trade secrets.a
An earlier ruling, now changed, had allowed the plaintiff to identify only those portions of its computer source code that were not trade secrets. That, defendants contended, was unfair since it essentially required them to deduce which trade secrets were at issue, possibly from millions of lines of computer source code.
The judge came around to defendantsa point of view:
Plaintiffs who have brought this action, bear the burden of proving their allegations. Merely providing defendants with plaintiffs' "reference library" to establish what portions of their source code are in the public domain shifts the burden to defendants to clarify plaintiffs' claim.
One of the defense lawyers claimed that to do otherwise would be like allowing a person to claim that he had been robbed by a suspect and then walk around the suspectas apartment to identify what was taken.
Before bringing any trade secrets case, it's always necessary to consider what disclosure may be required and its implications for the business and the trade secrets themselves.Keyword Selected: Daytona
"Defend Trade Secrets Act" - How Will This New Law Affect Your Business?
With a near unanimous (410-2) vote on April 27, 2016, the House passed the aDefend Trade Secrets Acta (aDTSAa). Having already been passed by the Senate (87-0), the legislation advances to President Obama, who has signaled that he will sign the bill into law. The law is drafted to go into effect on the day of its enactment, and will apply to misappropriation occurring on or after that date.
Read more...(wcsr.com).
Trade Secrets of the Assault Rifles
From the Daytona Beach News-Journal of Florida, a Florida contribution to the evolving role of trade secrets, concerning old-fashioned stealing, a vendetta against a former employee, and, of course, assault weapons.
The paper reports that two men -- Mark Hazelip and Jake Economou a were arrested and charged with stealing trade secrets from Tactical Machining of Deland, Florida, a company that produces upper and lower receivers for AR-15 rifles.
The two alleged stole computer programs, blueprints, drawings and a list of customers. Hazelip quit the company in January and went to work for a competitor, Daytona CNC . Economou was later fired from Tactical Machining. According to investigators, Hazelip talked of putting Tactical Machining out of business/
Instead, after a tip from another former employee working at Daytona CNC, the police aexecuted a search warrant at Daytona CNC and found the Tactical Machining blueprints and drawings for the gun parts and a spiral bound notebook with the name of clients in Hazelip's desk.aUncle Samas Economic Espionage a Not Looking for Your Trade Secrets
This follows on the heels of reports that the NSA has hacked into the systems of various foreign companies including a Brazilian state oil company.
The report quotes James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence:
aWhat we do not do, as we have said many times, is use our foreign intelligence capabilities to steal the trade secrets of foreign companies on behalf of, or give intelligence we collect, to US companies to enhance their international competitiveness or increase their bottom line.a
This issue, obviously, is far from settled.John Deere in Trade Secrets Dispute with Former Factory General Manager
From the Business Section of the Waterloo Cedar Falls (IA) Courier, a story concerning a trade secrets case by agricultural equipment maker Deere & Co. against the long-time general manager of its largest combine factory.
Deere is seeking injunctive relief against Eric Hansotia, who was hired by Deere competitor AGCO into a position that "significantly overlaps" his old job.
The case is pending in federal court in Illinois.
By the sound of the allegations, the case concerns both inevitable disclosure type claims, but also has claims that the defendant aIn his last four days of work . . . connected portable electronic storage devices, some of which computer logs indicate contained Deere trade secrets, to his Deere computer, and he may have kept those devices after his employment ended.a Chinese Trade Secrets Theft Hits US Universities
Now, in a new twist, Reuters reports that three Chinese researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center have been charged in federal court with bribery in connection with theft of trade secrets relating to MRI technology.
The researchers apparently received at least $400,000 in bribes to provide information to a Chinese Medical Imaging company, United Imaging Healthcare, and a Chinese government-backed research institute, Shenzen Institute of Advanced Technology.
The three were charged in federal court in the Southern District of New York where the US Attorney doesnat play.
Man Bites Dog!
Morning Whistle, an unsourced report that publisher and education company Pearson has been sued for stealing the trade secrets of a Chinese competitor, CentriPoint (China).
According to the report, Pearson VUE, Pearsonas computer-based testing division, acquired Certiport on May 15, 2012, but decided to suspend the online service of Certiport (China).
That company now claims that Pearson stole its client list under the pretense of an audit and informed customers of the change without prior consent of the other shareholders of Certiport (China).
An initial court date is scheduled for May 23, 2013.Trade Secrets Finally Gets Toward the Top of the National Agenda
You know trade secrets has finally hit it big when the subject is covered in USA Today and the report is on the Obama Administrationas a new strategy to combat the theft of American trade secrets.
The administration has released its 141-page Strategy on Mitigating the Theft of U.S. Trade Secrets. This comes just after the president signed an executive order adesigned to help U.S. computer networks guard against cyberattacks,a as USA Today put it.
The story contains comments from Victoria Espinel, the U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement coordinator.
In the words of USA Today:
aThe strategy includes diplomatic engagement with nations where incidents of trade secret theft are high, working with industries on the best ways to protect their secrets, and stepped up prosecutions of business espionage.a
The plan comes out at the same time as reports of Chinese Red Army hacking into U.S. computers.
Espinel says: "The administration will continue to act vigorously to combat the theft of American trade secrets that could be used by foreign companies or foreign governments to gain an unfair commercial advantage over U.S. companies."
Sounds like weare finally getting serious about a problem that has been allowed to grow for years.
Bratz-Mattel Doll Fight Ends Not with a Bang But a Whimper
Now it looks to be all over.
A prA(c)cis goes like this: designer leaves Mattel to go to MGA Entertainment where he designs the popular Bratz line of dolls. Mattell sues MGS for copyright infringement and gets a $100 million verdict and the rights to Bratz going forward.
The Ninth Circuit finds that amount excessive and sends the case back down to the trial court where the jury finds nothing for Mattel, but returns a $170 million verdict against Mattel on a counterclaim for theft of trade secrets, along with $137 million in attorneysa fees.
Now the Ninth Circuit vacates that verdict, finding it time-barred. The attorneysa fees, however, stick.
Itas time to find a cautionary tale here, but the case is so weird we may just need to chalk it up as a one-off.
A Video Overview of the Economic Espionage Act
From me (click the link), a short description of the recent changes in the EEA.Do Computer Fraud & Abuse Act Prosecutions Sometimes Go Too Far?
Offered here without commentary, an article from Slate concerning the recent suicide of Aaron Swartz who was set to go on trial next month for violations of the Computer Fraud & Abuse Act for unlocking a database of scholarly articles.
Prosecutors charging decisions a particularly the amount of prison time and penalties to be sought a are generally discretionary, rarely reviewable, and certainly subject to abuse (and not just under the CFAA).
There should be near unanimous agreement that what happened to Aaron is sad and, if an over-reaching prosecution played a role, something that ought to be rectified.
More on Economic Espionage Act Amendments
IP 360, a story concerning the amendments to the Economic Espionage Act.
The story quotes John Marsh of Hahn Loeser & Parks LLP as saying that the two bills passed by Congress represent "a strong commitment by the federal government to broaden the protections of trade secrets."
The bill, once itas signed by the President, will increase the maximum penalty for misappropriating trade secrets to benefit a foreign government from $500,000 to $5 million for individuals and also applies the law more broadly to the services industry.
The big question on tap for 2013: will Congress create a federal civil remedy for trade secrets theft as a cognate to the criminal statute represented by the EEA?
Amendment to Economic Espionage Act
In the Aleynikov case that we reported about over the years, the defendant managed to walk because the trade secrets he stole were not aproduceda for use in interstate commerce.
Under the new law, designed to reverse the earlier decision in Aleynikov, trade secrets used in or intended for use in interstate commerce are now included. The produced for requirement is gone.
Now say goodnight to the 112th Congress.
Chinaas Economic Espionage
Foreign Affairs, an excellent article by James A. Lewis on aChinaas Economic Espionage.a
According to Lewis, China is the worldas most aggressive practitioner of economic espionage, targeting key industries such as telecom, aerospace, energy and defense. Among other victims are Google and Nortel while some companies that are victims aoften conceal their losses.a
Lewis also argues that the national strategy of economic espionage actually serves to handicap Chinaas own development.
His final assessment:
Economic espionage lies at the heart of the larger issue of Chinaas integration into the international system -- the norms, practices, and obligations that states observe in their dealings with one another and with the citizens of other states. A failure to hold China accountable for espionage undermines efforts to bring Beijing into the fold. In the end, any peaceful rise requires that China play by the rules, even if it seeks to change them, rather than pretend they do not apply.
More Kolon Troubles
The US Attorney in Richmond has indicted the company and five officials, charging them with trade secrets theft. According to the Business Week report here the indictment includes a forfeiture claim seeking at least $225 million in alleged criminal proceeds from the company.
Civil trade secrets cases are bad enough. Criminal ones should be avoided at all costs.Huawei a Another Side of the Story
Farhad Manjoo, in Slate, says that whether a given piece of technology is dangerous is not determined by the nationality of the company that makes it.
As Manjoo puts it:
In reality, most devices are from everywhere. Your Android smartphone was designed in Korea, assembled in China, runs an operating system created in California, and works on a cellular carrier owned by a firm based in Germany. If youare worried about a certain companyas connections to China, you should be worried about pretty much every company in the tech industryathey all have large operations there, and, as a result of those operations, theyave all cut certain less-than-transparent deals with Chinese authorities.
http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2012/10/huawei_zte_are_chinese_telecom_firms_really_a_danger_to_national_security.htmlHuawei a Any Old Tech Company or Trade Secrets Threat?
On the heels of a recent report on 60 Minutes, Reuters (from LiveMint) reports on the controversy concerning Chinaas Huawei, the worldas second-largest maker of telecommunications gear.
The report quoted Rep. Mike Rogers, chair of the House Intelligence Committee: aIf I were an American company today ... and you are looking at Huawei, I would find another vendor if you care about your intellectual property; if you care about your consumersa privacy and you care about the national security of the United States of America.a
The committee is expected to release a report on the company later today (10/8/12).
Weall get a summary up as soon as itas released.
According to Reuters, Huawei has rejected charges that its expansion in the US poses a security risk and argues that it operates independently of the Chinese authorities.A Long, Long Injunction in DuPont Trade Secrets Case
We reported earlier on the $920 million damage award in favor of DuPont against South Koreaas Kolon for stealing trade secrets relating to the fibers used to make Kevlar body armor.
Now we learn from Bloomberg that the trial judge has not only upheld the verdict, but also imposed a 20-year injunction against Kolon to keep the company from producing any such fibers.
Injunctions, including permanent injunctions, are generally available under trade secrets statutes. Twenty years, though, is probably toward the outside range of what courts have ordered.
New Indictment in Bridgestone Tire Trade Secrets Case
Plain-Dealer is becoming our go-to source on current trade secrets stories.
Hereas another from that publication concerning a case out of Akron.
Xiaorong Wang, a former research scientist with Bridgestone Americas, has been indicted again on 15 counts of trade secrets theft and lying to the FBI.
The indictment claims that Wang burned six CDas of proprietary information on his way out the door after being told he would be let go. The secrets allegedly concern formulas and compound properties for race tires.
An earlier plea deal was rejected by the judge.
The FBI says that Wang provided the trade secrets to Shanghai Frontier Elastomer Co.Eaton-Frisby Trade Secrets Summary
Cleveland Plain Dealer concerning one of the strangest trade secrets cases ever, with North Carolina ties to boot.Set Back in Governmentas DuPont Trade Secrets Case
Weave reported previously on the economic espionage case concerning Pangang Group Steel Vanadium & Titanium Co Ltdas indictment for stealing DuPontas secret process for manufacturing titanium dioxide, a compound that makes products white.
Now comes this report from Reuters (in the Chicago Tribune) concerning a major set back in the governmentas case.
Federal judge Jeffrey White in the Northern District of California dismissed the indictment against the Chinese company on the grounds that service on its putative US agent was insufficient.
According to the report, White ruled that the government had not shown sufficient evidence that Pangang exercised enough control over the entity served for it to be considered an agent.
So we can now add service of process issues to the list of difficulties in trying to rein in Chinese economic espionage.
The government has until August to figure out what it will do next.
Weall report on what happens.Trade Secrets of the OLED TVas
Daytona Beach News-Journal is reporting what sounds like a potentially big trade secrets case.
According to the News-Journal, Samsung is accusing eleven people, including six of its own employees of stealing its trade secrets with respect to OLED (organic light-emitting diode) television technology.
The alleged bad-guy in the scenario: fellow Korean TV maker LG Display. Those two are currently fighting it out in OLED, believed to be the next generation of big-screen TV technology.
Samsung claims that LG stole its display technology and poached Samsung employees.Snyder's and Almeling's "Keeping Secrets: A Practical Introduction to Trade Secret Law and Strategy"
Womble Trade Secrets - after 16 great years at Womble Carlyle, I am departing for a litigation boutique that will be called Graebe Hanna & Sullivan, PLLC. Before advising you about a great new trade secret resource for all, I want to thank my friend and partner Press Millen for prompting me to co-author this blog with him back in 2006. There have been literally hundreds of thousands of visitors to this blog and I've met scores of attorneys and business people who reported perusing and using the blog for information. Thank you Press.
Our friends at O'Melveny & Myers, Darin Snyder and David Almeling, have written a practical and useful primer on trade secret law and the legal and practical treatment of trade secrets. The book, published by Oxford University Press, is divided into three parts: (a) the basics and some definitions useful in understanding trade secret law; (b) guidelines for creating a legal strategy for protecting trade secrets; and (c) practical guidance regarding business and legal responses to incidents of trade secret misappropriation or accusations of the same.
The anecdotes and breezy case studies in the book are rewarding - our favorite quote was from the founder of a company that designed underground mining vehicles and whose company was the victim of a key, respected employee's theft: "I was like the husband whose wife was getting it on the side." Messrs. Snyder and Almeling have shared with us their homework and case studies - just great stuff. We recommend this book to business litigators and non-specialists but it is great reading for those of us specializing in this area of law, as well. You can find the link to the book here: http://www.amazon.com/Keeping-Secrets-Practical-Introduction-Strategy/dp/0199797439/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1340990328&sr=8-3&keywords=almeling. http://www.amazon.com/Keeping-Secrets-Practical-Introduction-Strategy/dp/0199797439/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1340990328&sr=8-3&keywords=almelingChicago Trade Secrets Case Blows Up on Plaintiff
Take the case of Portola Packaging against its rival Logoplaste (reported here behind Litigation Dailyas paywall) but also nicely summarized in the Trial Communityas Litigation News Blog.
Logoplaste, in 2007, discussed the prospect of buying Portolaas Canadian subsidiary. They exchanged some putatively confidential information but never got a signed NDA. Negotiations broke off in February 2008. Shortly thereafter, Logoplaste landed a key Portola client.
Fast forward more than a year. Portola finally demanded return of the confidential information and filed suit claiming Logoplaste used the documents to steal the customer.
An Illinois state court judge ultimately ruled that Portola failed to protect its information. So far, pretty normal.
Hereas where it gets weird. The judge also ruled that because Portola designated its general counsel as a key witness, his emails were not protected by the attorney-client privilege.
Those emails apparently showed that he had urged Portola to sue just to hurt Logoplasteas business interests. And, he also apparently hired Logoplasteas regular counsel in an unrelated matter in order to create a conflict.
According to the report, although Portola claimed that its confidential documents were used to lure an employee away, the emails indicated the general counsel knew the employee approached Logoplaste first.
The result: a scathing opinion and an order that Portola will pay all of Logoplasteas attorneysa fees for the three years of litigation.
Ouch.
Appeals, no doubt, to follow.Another Big Verdict a Utah Style
For sheer dollars, though, this one out of state court in Utah is right up with those. The report is from the Salt Lake Tribune.
The scenario is a familiar one: Company A seeks bids to build a power plant and Company B, under a non-disclosure agreement, submits its proposal. Company A decides to pull the bidding and awards the contract to itself.
Many years and one trade secrets lawsuit later, Company A finds itself on the wrong side of $134 million verdict based on the contention that it used Company Bas trade secrets to build the power plant.
Company A is PacifiCorp (doing business in Utah as Rocky Mountain Power) and Company B is USA Power.
Now USA Power wants to double the verdict to $267 million.
Thatas a big one by trade secrets standards and weall let you know how it turns out.The Trade Secrets Dilemma a Sue and Disclose
News & Insight on an age-old problem in trade secrets, the fact that bringing suit often requires disclosing the trade secrets.
The article concerns a case in New York state court, MSCI v. Jacob and Axoma. MCSI, a software maker, claimed that its former employee, Jacob, misappropriated trade secrets in its software on behalf of his new employer, Axoma.
The judge overseeing the case made a critical ruling in a discovery dispute requiring the plaintiff to identify awith reasonable particularitya the trade secrets it contends were misappropriated. Only this, the judge ruled would allow the court to distinguish abetween the general knowledge in their field and trade secrets.a
An earlier ruling, now changed, had allowed the plaintiff to identify only those portions of its computer source code that were not trade secrets. That, defendants contended, was unfair since it essentially required them to deduce which trade secrets were at issue, possibly from millions of lines of computer source code.
The judge came around to defendantsa point of view:
Plaintiffs who have brought this action, bear the burden of proving their allegations. Merely providing defendants with plaintiffs' "reference library" to establish what portions of their source code are in the public domain shifts the burden to defendants to clarify plaintiffs' claim.
One of the defense lawyers claimed that to do otherwise would be like allowing a person to claim that he had been robbed by a suspect and then walk around the suspectas apartment to identify what was taken.
Before bringing any trade secrets case, it's always necessary to consider what disclosure may be required and its implications for the business and the trade secrets themselves.Google layoffs: A timeline of the company's job cuts and restructuring into 2024
Google's layoffs have affected thousands of employees. The tech company cited a weak economy for the job cuts and is restructuring to focus on AI.They were gonna text back. It's just that iMessage went down for almost an hour.
Apple's iMessage outage lasted nearly an hour on Thursday, sparking social media reactions and highlighting its integral role in US communication.I have fond memories of high school in America. I'm worried my daughter won't feel the same in Singapore.
Jason Erik Lundberg's teenage daughter attends a public high school in Singapore. He worries about the high level of stress. Keyword Selected: Beach
UC Irvine protest: Newport Beach mayor claps back at Irvine mayor's tweet over 'violent scenario'
The UC Irvine administration asked for law enforcement agencies from neighboring cities to respond to a pro-Palestinian protest Wednesday.
Column: Champagne wishes and caviar dreams ... of a Senate seat in Wisconsin?
Orange County banking executive Eric Hovde is running for Senate in Wisconsin, where the Republican was born and raised but fairly scarce in recent years. Democrats are trying to make his California ties an issue.
Police arrest 47 at UC Irvine after sweeping protest camp, clearing barricaded building
Hundreds of officers descended on the UC Irvine campus after protesters took over a lecture hall; 47 were arrested and the encampment cleared.
Vietnamese groups furious over 'Jane Fonda Day' in L.A. County
The Board of Supervisors will consider moving Jane Fonda Day to April 8 instead of its original proposal of April 30, the day of the fall of Saigon in 1975.
Homelessness down in Long Beach, up in Orange County, latest counts find
The city of Long Beach saw a drop in homelessness for the first time in seven years, while the unhoused population continued to grow in Orange County from 2022 to 2024.
Battle in Huntington Beach after transgender surfer barred from longboard competition
An Orange County surf competition organizer said transgender athlete Sasha Jane Lowerson couldn't compete in the women's division, but changed course after the California Coastal Commission intervened.
Ohtani's ex-interpreter reportedly wired money to 'Real Housewives' star to pay gambling debts
Ryan Boyanjian, a 'Real Housewives of Orange County' star, is reportedly 'Associate 1' in the criminal case against Shohei Ohtani's former interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara.
Opinion: Why L.A. County's 'Jane Fonda Day' declaration was so astoundingly insensitive
Los Angeles County leaders showed disregard for Vietnamese Americans by choosing the fall of Saigon anniversary to honor the actress who infamously visited Hanoi.
Column: Disneyland has already turned my hometown into a giant tourist trap. What's next?
The greatest trick Disney ever pulled was convincing Anaheimers that its bad side doesn't exist. The few skeptics of its expansion plan have been easily drowned out by supporters.
His dad gave him water on way to winning O.C. Marathon. He got disqualified for drinking it
Esteban Prado was disqualified as the winner of the Orange County Marathon after his dad gave him water during the race. He violated the unauthorized assistance rule.
His dad gave him water on way to winning O.C. Marathon. He got disqualified for drinking it
Esteban Prado was disqualified as the winner of the Orange County Marathon after his dad gave him water during the race. He violated the unauthorized assistance rule.
Column: Watch your step, Democrats. O.C.'s purple shine hides a red underbelly
While the rise of Democrats in O.C. has made all the headlines, the facts on the ground tell a different story. In terms of local political power, Republicans still rule a and it's not even close.
Encampments spread across California universities. Are they living on borrowed time?
After police cleared Pro-Palestinian encampments at UCLA, Cal State Humboldt and USC, protesters on other California campuses say they will remain.
Bloody spear, 2 bodies found inside storage facility in Santa Ana
Police found a woman and her uncle dead inside a Santa Ana storage facility, along with an injured man who authorities say is the suspect in the killings.
LGBTQ+ people in Huntington Beach feel a growing hostility
Kanan Durham never wanted to be an activist. But the trans Orange County's man and other LGBTQ+ people in Orange County feel called to speak out against a climate of hostility in Huntington Beach.
4.1 earthquake strikes near Corona, slightly shakes Southern California
A magnitude 4.1 earthquake was reported shortly before 2 p.m., according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Inside the far-right plan to use civil rights law to disrupt the 2024 election
Experts describe the plan as a legal long shot, but say it could sow doubts about the integrity of a rematch between President Biden and former President Trump.
Police swarm Cal Poly Humboldt, arresting at least 25 and ending weeklong siege over Gaza war
Pro-Palestinian encampments have sprung up on the campuses of UC Irvine, UC Riverside, Occidental College, Sacramento State and San Francisco State, among others.
Many O.C. residents deny Trump election results, potentially swaying key races, poll finds
In a purple county with several contests that could shape the balance of power in Congress, doubts about elections could keep voters away in November a particularly conservatives.
Column: My Mami's hard life, cut short right when it was about to get really good
The pain I feel at her death from ovarian cancer at age 67 remains raw. The guilt over not appreciating Mami's love until it was too late, haunts me.
Accomplice in shooting death of 6-year-old Aidan Leos pleads guilty, sentenced to time served
Wynne Lee, 26, pleads guilty to one felony count of accessory after the fact and one misdemeanor count of having a concealed firearm in a vehicle. But she won't serve any more time.
How an expensive bet by Emily's List in an Orange County congressional race went awry
The Democratic political group spent big in support of Joanna Weiss during the 47th District primary, only to see her finish third.
Zip ties, guns and a rope: New details emerge on Newport Beach home invasion
Police have arrested a 24-year-old man in connection with a Newport Beach home invasion that occurred early Tuesday.
A drunk driver killed her husband and daughter. His 11-year sentence brings no comfort
The 11-year prison sentence handed to the drunk driver who killed her husband and daughter is not enough, Anaheim woman says.
Column: Disneyland just promised electric cars at Autopia. Gas will be gone by 2026
Disney had previously committed to ditching gasoline engines but left open hybrids as a possibility.
Huge Disneyland expansion to add new rides, restaurants and hotels wins OK
Anaheim City Council approves a plan to amend zoning rules to allow Disneyland to build new rides, hotels and stores within its existing footprint.
California sues Huntington Beach over 'blatantly and flatly illegal' voter ID law
The voter ID lawsuit is the latest clash between California and the conservative town, which has thrust itself into the U.S. culture wars and the crosshairs of state officials.
Keyword Selected: Fla.
Guide to AI Regulation – Recent Additions
For those of you who are watching the regulatory environment for AI, here are some of the latest additions to my Guide to AI Regulation.
Federal
Updated â Notice to the Parties and the Profession: The Use of Artificial Intelligence in Court Proceedings, (Federal Court of Canada, updated May 7 2024), online.
Robert Morrissey, Chair. Implications of Artificial Intelligence Technologies for the Canadian Labour Force: Report of the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities, 44th Parl, 1st Sess (House of Commons of Canada, May 2024).online . . . [more]
The post Guide to AI Regulation â Recent Additions appeared first on Slaw.
Wednesday: Whatas Hot on CanLII? a April 2024
Each month, we tell you which three English-language cases and French-language cases have been the most viewed* on CanLII in the previous month and we give you a small sense of what the cases are about. For this past month, the three most-consulted English-language decisions were:
1. Dickson v. Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation, 2024 SCC 10A (A(c)galement disponible en franASSais ici)
[2] Cindy Dickson, a citizen of the VGFN and of Canada, lives in Whitehorse and is constrained, for personal reasons, to stay there. She wishes to stand for election as a VGFN Councillor and says the residency . . . [more]
The post Wednesday: Whatas Hot on CanLII? a April 2024 appeared first on Slaw.
From Pillar to Post: Signs of the Times in Law Publishing
Aspen Publishing, until the end of 2021, was part of Wolters Kluweras Legal & Regulatory information publishing business unit. Around that time, it was sold, for $88m, to Transom Capital Group, a private equity firm. A mere two years later, it has been moved on again, this time to UWorld, a US-based online learning business, which was established in 2003, by a medical doctor. UWorldas existing learning resources and methods are offered in certain undergraduate, graduate and professional environments, such as accounting, finance, medical, pharmacy and nursing, as well as for some aspects of US legal training. In . . . [more]
The post From Pillar to Post: Signs of the Times in Law Publishing appeared first on Slaw.
In Praise of in-Person CPDs and (Ongoing) AI Anxiety
The recent CBA national conference for immigration lawyers passed as though COVID is a distant memory. Crowded rooms full of professionals who serve the Canadian immigration system and our diverse mosaic of communities, in some way or another. Past practices of social distancing or meeting remotely have gone the way of the Dodo bird. At this recent conference, I was struck by one of the huge benefits of in-person learning: presenters can be candid and forthcoming, without fear their comments are being recorded. Speakers were able to share their thoughts and opinions freely without potential negative repercussions to them personally⦠. . . [more]
The post In Praise of in-Person CPDs and (Ongoing) AI Anxiety appeared first on Slaw.
Risk Management Revisited (Again): Navigating the Frontier of AI Regulation
I am very happy to be writing for SLAW again after 10 years of absence. I ended my time with SLAW in 2014 writing about general practice management issues and return in 2024 with a specific focus on risk management for artificial intelligence. My last column was posted in 2014 and bore the title aRisk Management Revisiteda. In that post I briefly discussed the value of risk management for law firms and set out some basic steps that firms could take to begin the risk management process. I also observed at that time that a[u]nfortunately, in my experience, . . . [more] The post Risk Management Revisited (Again): Navigating the Frontier of AI Regulation appeared first on Slaw.
Mondayas Mix
Each Monday we present brief excerpts of recent posts from five of Canadaas awardA-winning legal blogs chosen at random* from more than 80 recent Clawbie winners. In this way we hope to promote their work, with their permission, to as wide an audience as possible. This week the randomly selected blogs are 1. Family LLB 2. Sane Split Podcast 3.A Legal Feeds 4. PierreRoy & AssociA(c)s 5. Blogue SOQUIJ
Family LLB
Upcoming Virtual Event a Divorce and Financial Disclosure
Join us for a 1 hour and 15 minute virtual event with family lawyersA Russell Alexander,A Shmuel Stern, &A . . . [more]
The post Mondayas Mix appeared first on Slaw.
Summaries Sunday: SOQUIJ
Every week we present the summary of a decision handed down by a QuA(c)bec court provided to us by SOQUIJ and considered to be of interest to our readers throughout Canada. SOQUIJ is attached to the QuA(c)bec Department of Justice and collects, analyzes, enriches, and disseminates legal information in QuA(c)bec. PANAL (DROIT) : Le tribunal rejette la requAate en arrAat des procA(c)dures prA(c)sentA(c)e par lâaccusA(c), qui marchait sur un trottoir du centre-ville de MontrA(c)al avec un pistolet de marque Glock 19 cachA(c) dans un sac A bandouliA"re de type A<> avant dâAatre interpellA(c) par les policiers; ces derniers avaient . . . [more]
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Friday Jobs Roundup
Each Friday, we share the latest job listings from Slaw Jobs, which features employment opportunities from across the country. Find out more about these positions by following the links below, or learn how you can use Slaw JobsA to gain valuable exposure for your job ads, while supporting the great Canadian legal commentary at Slaw.ca.
Current postings on Slaw Jobs:
- Staff Lawyer | Westbank, BC
(BC First Nations Justice Council) - Director of Policing, Oversight and Accountability | Head Office in Westbank or any Indigenous Justice Centre, Canada
(BC First Nations Justice Council) - Family LawyerA (Full-time) | Chilliwack, BC
(Waterstone Law
. . . [more]
The post Friday Jobs Roundup appeared first on Slaw.
AI Today: Grand Theft Auto or Public Benefactor?
aThis is the largest theft in the United States, period.a Such is the judgment of author and scriptwriter Justine Bateman who has complained to the US Copyright Office that the AI industry has scraped her work, much as it has everything else, having exhausted Wikipedia and Reddit it is moving on YouTube transcripts and Google docs. This is what it takes to assemble the trillions of words needed to expand the training of ever-more-powerful Large Language Models (LLMs). As a result, Batemanas complaint has become a common charge. Authors (notably Sarah Silverman and John Grisham), publishers (Universal Music . . . [more] The post AI Today: Grand Theft Auto or Public Benefactor? appeared first on Slaw.
Newfoundland and Labrador Privacy Class Action Goes Ahead
Written by Christina Catenacci, BA, LLB, LLM, PhD, Content Editor, First Reference Inc.
In February 2024, the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador certified a privacy class action. The representative plaintiffs, on behalf of 260 individuals (first 240 individuals, and second 20 individuals), alleged that their privacy was violated when an employee of the defendant employer (a health authority) accessed the private information of these individuals that was outside the scope of their employment. The employer became aware of the first and second alleged breaches in 2020 and 2021, respectively. The main claim against the employer was that there . . . [more]
The post Newfoundland and Labrador Privacy Class Action Goes Ahead appeared first on Slaw.
Book Review: Public Health Crisis Management and Criminal Liability of Governments: A Comparative Study of the COVID-19 Pandemic
Several times each month, we are pleased to republish a recent book review from the Canadian Law Library Review (CLLR). CLLR is the official journal of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL/ACBD), and its reviews cover both practice-oriented and academic publications related to the law. Public Health Crisis Management and Criminal Liability of Governments: A Comparative Study of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Edited by Michael Bohlander, Gerhard Kemp & Mark Webster. New York: Bloomsbury, 2023. xii, 368 p. Includes preface, list of contributors, abbreviations, and index. ISBN 9781509946310 (hardcover) $180.95; ISBN 9781509946327 (ePUB) $162.85; ISBN 9781509946334 . . . [more]
The post Book Review: Public Health Crisis Management and Criminal Liability of Governments: A Comparative Study of the COVID-19 Pandemic appeared first on Slaw.
Does AI Have a Soul? Can AI Show Empathy?
Peopleas Law School recently launched a ChatGPT-4 powered Chatbot to respond to questions posed by visitors to PLSas website. The Chatbot is named Beagle+ and it has a very cute icon. This PLS post describes the Chatbot and provides some examples of questions and responses. I was particularly intrigued with the assertion that it provides ahelpful and empathetica responses to peoplesa legal questions. Iam skeptical about AIas ability to communicate effective empathy. But I was surprised to read the final example in the post:
Beagle+: Before you go, I just want to remind you to take care of
. . . [more]
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Describing a Police Shooting: A Lesson in Legal Writing
There are a lot of ways to characterize any event, and a good lawyer can use language to describe a situation and also advocate for their client. I learned from experienced colleagues who were teaching students this skill. The example my colleagues used was drawn from a tragic event nearby: a police shooting of a person who had not yet harmed others but who was behaving erratically and had brandished a weapon. My colleagues used two documents from the case. The first was written by a pro-police advocate who described the scene and the confusion and fear felt by the . . . [more]
The post Describing a Police Shooting: A Lesson in Legal Writing appeared first on Slaw.
Book Review : Family Dispute Resolution: Process and Practice (2024)
Family Dispute Resolution: Process and Practice, just published by Oxford University Press, is THE book that family dispute resolution (FDR) practitioners and educators have been waiting for.
Edited by Peter Salem and Kelly Browe Olson, this book delivers the goods like no otherâ all 600+ pages of it.[1] It is an essential guide for experienced practitioners in particularalawyers or mental health professionals with dispute resolution training or experience. The book will remind them why they were drawn to this work in the first place and rejuvenate their practices in unexpected ways.
Though heavily US-focused, there are three strong . . . [more]
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Summaries Sunday: SOQUIJ
Every week we present the summary of a decision handed down by a QuA(c)bec court provided to us by SOQUIJ and considered to be of interest to our readers throughout Canada. SOQUIJ is attached to the QuA(c)bec Department of Justice and collects, analyzes, enriches, and disseminates legal information in QuA(c)bec. PANAL (DROIT) : La juge de premiA"re instance nâa pas errA(c) en condamnant lâaccusA(c)e, une fraudeuse qui avait usurpA(c) lâidentitA(c) dâune autre personne, A une peine de 18A mois dâemprisonnement; lâaccusA(c)e ne convainc pas la Cour que les accrocs procA(c)duraux liA(c)s aux dA(c)clarations des victimes lui ont causA(c) un prA(c)judice . . . [more]
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Friday Jobs Roundup
Each Friday, we share the latest job listings from Slaw Jobs, which features employment opportunities from across the country. Find out more about these positions by following the links below, or learn how you can use Slaw JobsA to gain valuable exposure for your job ads, while supporting the great Canadian legal commentary at Slaw.ca.
Current postings on Slaw Jobs:
- Staff Lawyer | Westbank, BC
(BC First Nations Justice Council) - Director of Policing, Oversight and Accountability | Head Office in Westbank or any Indigenous Justice Centre, Canada
(BC First Nations Justice Council) - Family LawyerA (Full-time) | Chilliwack, BC
(Waterstone Law
. . . [more]
The post Friday Jobs Roundup appeared first on Slaw.
Law Firm Failures a the New Normal?
Legal service is a business. Run it that way. Many law firms are successful by accident.
Anyone who knows anything about traditional law firm structures knows they are perilously fragile. It doesnat take much to bring them down.
Up until this latest debacleathe 2024 collapse of Minden GrossaCanadaas highest-profile law firm failures were Heenan Blaikie in 2014, Goodman and Carr in 2007, and Holden Day Wilson in 1996.
Canadian law firms are not alone in this plight. For exampleaand this is only a small samplingalawyer exits and merger failure brought down U.S.-based Stroock & Stroock & Lavan at the end . . . [more]
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Dealing With a Breach of a Court Order
When a party fails to abide by an interlocutory court order, there can be several consequences. For instance in Ontario, Rule 60.12 of the Rules of Civil Procedure states that ââ¦the court may, in addition to any other sanction provided by these rules, (a) stay the partyas proceeding; (b) dismiss the partyas proceeding or strike out the partyas defence; or (c) make such other order as is just.â
In the recent case, Buduchnist Credit Union Limited v. 2321197 Ontario Inc., 2024 ONCA 57 at para 53, the Ontario Court of Appeal reaffirms that the courtâs discretion to respond . . . [more]
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Delays in Access to Justice and Memories
Everyone is the poet of their memories. ⦠But like the best poems, theyâre also never really finished because they gain new meaning as time reveals them in different lights.
Richard Hell
The resolution of disputes does not always depend on the memories of parties or witnesses, but when credibility is at issue the memories of actions can be a critical part of resolving disputes. The more we learn about how memories are formed, and more importantly, how they are retained, the more we should have real concerns about the ability of decision-makers to assess credibility of testimony of events . . . [more]
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Awakening the Sun
I recently read about an interesting concept about reframing oneas point of view. It stated that if you wake up with the sun, you are still asleep. However if you awaken the sun, then you are truly awake.
I had to read it a few times to actually understand itas meaning, but then I realized that what this means, is that the way our day develops is completely up to us.
If we set an intention for the day to unfold in a calm and peaceful manner, knowing that we are fully capable of dealing with whatever challenges may arise, . . . [more]
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Tips Tuesday: Use the Verbatim Option in Google
You may have noticed that Google has changed its search results so that they now include words related to those in your search string. While this can be helpful, sometimes it means that the search results are not what you really wanted.A One way of forcing Google to return only the words you are searching for is to put quotation marks around the words or phrases you want. Another way is to use Googleas verbatim option.
To use the verbatim option, go to the Tools option on the Google search page. Click on All Results and then select Verbatim. . . . [more]
The post Tips Tuesday: Use the Verbatim Option in Google appeared first on Slaw.
Mondayas Mix
Each Monday we present brief excerpts of recent posts from five of Canadaas awardA-winning legal blogs chosen at random* from more than 80 recent Clawbie winners. In this way we hope to promote their work, with their permission, to as wide an audience as possible. This week the randomly selected blogs are 1.A Global Workplace Insider 2. Vancouver Immigration Law Blog 3. Le Blogue du CRL 4.A Canadian Appeals Monitor 5. The Treasureras Blog
Global Workplace Insider
La Cour suprAame du Canada tranche : les cadres ne pourront se syndiquer au QuA(c)bec
Le 19 avril dernier, la Cour suprAame du . . . [more]
The post Mondayas Mix appeared first on Slaw.
Summaries Sunday: SOQUIJ
Every week we present the summary of a decision handed down by a QuA(c)bec court provided to us by SOQUIJ and considered to be of interest to our readers throughout Canada. SOQUIJ is attached to the QuA(c)bec Department of Justice and collects, analyzes, enriches, and disseminates legal information in QuA(c)bec. PANAL (DROIT) : Lâappel de la dA(c)claration de dA(c)linquant dangereux prononcA(c)e A lâendroit de lâaccusA(c) est rejetA(c), et ce, bien que le juge de premiA"re instance ait mal A(c)noncA(c) lâA(c)tat du droit et que la structure du jugement de dA(c)termination de la peine soit critiquable; la Cour nây voit aucune . . . [more]
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Book Review: Big Data
Several times each month, we are pleased to republish a recent book review from the Canadian Law Library Review (CLLR). CLLR is the official journal of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL/ACBD), and its reviews cover both practice-oriented and academic publications related to the law. Big Data. Edited by Benoit Leclerc & Jesse Cale. Abingdon: Routledge, 2020. 148 p. Includes illustrations, bibliographic references, and index. Criminology at the Edge series. ISBN 9781138492783 (hardcover) $136.00; ISBN 9781032336992 (softcover) $42.36; ISBN 9781351029704 (eBook) $42.36.
Reviewed by Matthew Renaud
Law Librarian,
E.K. Williams Law Library, University of Manitoba . . . [more]
The post Book Review: Big Data appeared first on Slaw.
Governance Reform and Lawyer Independence in Canadian Legal Regulation: Examining British Columbiaas Bill 21
Earlier this month, the government of British Columbia introduced Bill 21, the Legal Professions Act. This bill amalgamates the Law Society of British Columbia and the Society of Notaries Public of British Columbia into a new corporation, Legal Professions British Columbia (LPBC), while also creating a licensing and regulation structure for paralegals. It could be the most consequential development in Canadian legal regulation in more than 100 years. The British Columbia legal professionas leading organizations (the Law Society, the Canadian Bar Associationas BC branch, and the Trial Lawyersa Association of BC) strongly oppose Bill 21, with the . . . [more]
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Effective Use of Visual Aids in Mediation
The use of demonstrative or visual aids at mediation is more widely accepted by lawyers and mediators since the legal profession began its rapid embrace of technology. Arguably, the pandemic accelerated this implementation. The technology adoption started with the exchange of electronic mediation briefs, improved access to scanned documents, and the use of video software, like Zoom and Teams. Now, counsel more commonly use Power Point or slides and electronic documentation in their introductory remarks, and present demonstrative aids in their Mediation Briefs to bolster arguments by visual communication. Through technology, counsel can now utilize a variety of demonstrative aids . . . [more]
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