For our weekly SoCal IP Institute meeting on Monday, December 4, 2017, we will discuss the following cases:

H.Q. Milton, Inc. v. Webster, (N.D. Cal November 22, 2017) (available here). Plaintiff owns an expensive watch store that sells vintage timepieces. Defendant, a former employee, started his own watch store allegedly misappropriating trade secrets such as client information and proprietary pricing data from his former employer. Defendant argued that because plaintiff did not use encryption, passwords, or confidentiality agreements no “reasonable measures” were taken and thus there could be no appropriation. The court disagreed. Although prudent, the court found such measures were not necessary to protect trade secrets.

Rucker v. Fasano, (N.D. Ill November 21, 2017) (available here). Plaintiff and defendant were both authors of romance novels. In 2010 Plaintiff noticed a book sold on amazon that he believed was strikingly similar to his and decided to sue defendant for copyright infringement. In granting defendant’s motion for summary judgment, the court noted a problem in plaintiff’s timeline of events (defendant had written and published his book before plaintiff even started his). Additionally, the court analyzed the similarity and common themes among all romance novels.

All are invited to join us on December 4, 2017, at noon in our Westlake Village office. This activity is approved for 1 hour of MCLE credit. If you will be joining us, please RSVP to Elisha Manzur by 9 am Monday morning.