I’m active in the American Intellectual Property Law Association’s Trade Secrets Law Committee and for those who are either attending the AIPLA’s Spring Meeting in Austin, Texas or still considering it, I wanted to let you know that a panel that I helped organize will be speaking on a number of significant trade secret issues with an emphasis on the increasingly international aspects of trade secrets disputes. 
 
The presentation, “The Internationalization of Trade Secret Disputes:  Big Cases, Big Verdicts and Big Challenges” is scheduled for the morning of May 10, 2012 and runs from 9 a.m. to noon. The topics and speakers include:

  • “Managing and Protecting Your Trade Secrets Overseas – Best Practices to Minimize Misappropriation” – Beth Apperley of AMD in Austin, Texas;
  • “Employees Without Borders:  Managing personal devices and digital technology in an increasingly mobile world” – Ron Johnstone of Yahoo in Sunnyvale, California;
  • “Overcoming the Special Challenges of Litigating against Foreign Parties and Companies” — Michael J. Songer of Crowell & Moring’s Washington, D.C. office;
  • “Litigating Spoliation of Evidence Disputes:  Fallout from the DuPont v. Kolon case and how to use, or avoid, it in your trade secret case” – Griffith Price of Finnegan’s Washington, D.C. office;
  • “Litigating Trade Secret Cases before the ITC – The future of TianRui Group v. ITC and the fallout on trade secret protection internationally” – Bryan Wilson of Morrison Foerster’s Palo Alto, California office; and
  • “Update on Pending Trade Secret Legislation – Status of the Economic Espionage Act, Cybersecurity Bill, New Jersey’s recent adoption of UTSA and recent state trade secret and non-compete legislation” – Peter J. Toren of Weisbrod Mateis & Copley in Washington, D.C.

Mark Halligan of Nixon Peabody’s Chicago office and one of the prominent voices in the trade secret community will be serving as moderator.  Having had the privilege to help put together the presentation and assemble the panel with Dan Westman of Morrison Foerster and David De Bruin of Michael Best, I am excited about the presentation as it hits a number of big decisions and topics in the news — DuPont v. Kolon, TianRui Group v. ITC, mobile devices, and the Economic Espionage Act, among others.
 
It is not too late to register for the AIPLA’s Spring Meeting (here’s the link).  Hope to see you there!