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I am honored to be presenting the Year in Review for Trade Secrets Law at the plenary session of the American Intellectual Property Law Association’s 2017 Annual Meeting this Saturday, October 21, 2017 at 9 a.m. at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, D.C.

I will be covering significant trade secret developments from the past year, including a discussion of key rulings in the Waymo v. Uber Technologies case, developments under the Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA), including recent cases addressing the ex parte seizure order, whistleblower protection and restrictions on injunctions involving employment.   I hope to also cover the recent American Bar Association Ethics Opinion reinforcing lawyers’ obligations to protect trade secrets, as well as other noteworthy rulings and opinions.

Registration for the Annual Meeting can be found here.   Hope you can join us.

A recent opinion from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois has stirred up a hornets’ nest of commentary because it appears to recognize the viability of the inevitable disclosure doctrine under the Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA).  Those familiar with the DTSA will recall that the inevitable disclosure doctrine was supposed to be prohibited under the DTSA because of California Senator Diane Feinstein’s concern that the doctrine might be enforced against California residents.  Now, in what appears to be the first federal appellate court opinion construing the DTSA, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit may have further muddied the waters about the inevitable disclosure doctrine in Fres-co Systems USA, Inc. v. Hawkins, Case No. 16-3591, ___ Fed. Appx. __ (3rd Cir. 2017), 2017 WL 2376568 (June 1, 2017) (a link to the opinion can found here). Continue Reading Fres-co Systems v. Hawkins: Did The Third Circuit Just Create More Confusion Around The DTSA’s Ban On The Inevitable Disclosure Doctrine?