General MacArthurU.S. General Douglas MacArthur famously proclaimed “I shall return” when forced to leave the Philippines in 1942, and, sure enough, he returned in 1945 to great public adulation. Although the Trade Secret Litigator made no such bold promise, some of his readers did ask if he would ever return, and, like his swaggering idol, he is delighted to announce that he is back to once again share his opinions over the blawgosphere. (Whether the impact of his return rivals that of the General’s remains to be seen).

In all seriousness, I am delighted to announce that I am resuming my blog and partnering with LexBlog in this reboot. I wish I had as good of an excuse as MacArthur for my extended leave, but I was not off serving as Supreme Commander of the Southwest Pacific. Rather, my sabbatical over the past year was attributable to a host of more mundane reasons — a really busy year, too much travel, some technical issues that bedeviled our team here at Hahn Loeser, and finally, that old noonday devil, procrastination. But I really am excited about launching into this year with all of the developments that are now going on — a likely federal trade secret statute, states wrestling with limitations on non-competes, developments in cybersecurity, the apparent erosion of patent protection and ascendancy of trade secrets, and the many other issues about which to blog. While I was never awarded the Medal of Honor for my previous efforts, the positive feedback of my readers is just as valuable to me, and makes returning that much more exciting.

There will be a few changes. First, I won’t be able to keep up the torrid pace of 2 to 3 posts a week as before, and will instead aspire to putting up 1 to 2 posts a week. Second, rather than doing a “Weekly Wrap-Up,” I will be doing a more comprehensive “Monthly Wrap-Up,” hitting the high points of trade secret, non-compete and cybersecurity law for the preceding month. Third, while I will continue to cover key cases and legislation, I want to focus more on some of the developments and social undertows that are shaping the law in this area, as well as engage in more debate with commentators who may see things differently. As anyone reading this blog knows, this area of the law has grown exponentially over the past decade, and will continue to do so. The law has lagged, however, and so there may be opportunities to shape those forces that will, in turn, shape the law and policy in this area. I hope to be able to contribute here as well.

Glad to be back, and I hope you will continue to follow me in the coming year!

The Trade Secret Litigator