Insights

Washington – January 10, 2024: Crowell & Moring has published Litigation Forecast 2024: What Corporate Counsel Need to Know for the Coming Year. The 12th-annual Litigation Forecast focuses on trends in intellectual property, regulatory and other U.S. litigation, with special coverage of supply chain recovery and international litigation.

Washington – January 11, 2023: Crowell & Moring has published Litigation Forecast 2023: What Corporate Counsel Need to Know for the Coming Year. The 11th-annual Litigation Forecast focuses on trends in litigation that are playing out in specific jurisdictions around the globe. 

On April 23, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC” or “the Agency”) voted 3-2 along partisan lines in a special public meeting to adopt the “Non-Compete Clause Rule” (the “Final Rule”), which will prohibit most employee non-competes with retroactive effect, except existing non-compete provisions of “senior executives.”  The Final Rule will also ban future non-compete agreements, including for senior executives, with limited exceptions.  The rule will not become effective until 120 days after publication in the Federal Register, and covered employers will be required to comply with the Final Rule by that effective date, which could come as early as August this year.  By the FTC’s own estimate, this ban could affect up to one-in-five American workers.

On March 25, 2024, the Federal Circuit issued a precedential opinion in Edwards Lifesciences Corporation v. Meril Life Sciences Pvt. Ltd., a case with significant implications for the application of the safe harbor provision of 35 U.S.C. § 271(e)(1). This case involved the importation of two transcatheter heart valve systems by Meril Life Sciences Pvt. Ltd., an India-based medical device company, to San Francisco for a medical conference. According to Meril, these heart valve systems, part of Meril’s Myval System designed to treat heart disease, were never displayed or offered for sale at the conference but were instead stored in a bag in a hotel closet and later in a storage room. The Court’s decision to affirm the district court’s grant of summary judgment of noninfringement in favor of Meril brings to light the nuances of applying the safe harbor provision in patent infringement cases.

A recent Final Initial Determination (“FID”) from newly appointed Administrative Law Judge Hines confirmed the statutory authority of the International Trade Commission (“ITC” or “Commission”) to investigate the alleged importation of goods incorporating misappropriated trade secrets causing injury to a domestic industry, as held by the Federal Circuit in TianRui Grp. Co. Ltd. v. Int’l Trade Comm’n, 661 F.3d 1322 (Fed. Cir. 2011).  The ALJ also held that Complainant had proven its domestic industry had been substantially injured despite the fact that its revenue had increased during the same period.  For Crowell’s previous client alert on TianRui, see here.

Courts across the country will continue grappling with the question of exactly how and when trade secret plaintiffs should be required to identify the very information they are suing to protect, says Paul Keller, a partner in Crowell & Moring’s Patents Group.

Raija Horstman will be presenting in Part 1 of the "Deep Dive: Therapeutics" session and addressing the topic, "Patents vs. Trade Secrets in Biotech and Pharma: Navigating the Quagmire" at AIPLA's Mid-Winter Institute on February 2, 2022. She will be speaking about what is next for biopharma as it searches for the next breakthrough therapeutic. 

Astor Heaven will be participating as a panelist and moderator at the 2021 Annual Meeting of The Sedona Conference Working Group (WG12) on Trade Secrets.  The WG12 will be comprised of drafting teams that will lead discussion on various trade secret related topics, with the ultimate goal of advancing draft commentary for publication.  Astor will be leading a discussion on “Sharing Trade Secrets With Other Organizations.”

Join us for a webinar discussion as we cover what you need to know about the big cases, changes, and developments relating to trade secrets from the past year. Our discussion will cover three key areas:

There’s been an increase in the number of criminal prosecutions of trade secret theft under the Economic Espionage Act over the past several years, including the pursuit of those behind state-sponsored cyber intrusions as well as a renewed focus on insider cases involving both private sector companies and academic institutions.

With more employees working remotely due to COVID-19, the risk of disclosure of sensitive business information significantly increases as information is accessed outside the office. Employees are increasingly relying on video services to remain connected, but the increasing prevalence of video services does not come without problems. Join us for a discussion of the risks and tips for ensuring your company’s trade secrets are protected.