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Trade Secrets 101: What Texas Businesses and Their Lawyers Need to Know
First, if a business wants to preserve the ability to sue for misappropriation of tradesecrets, it needs to take “reasonable measures” to maintain the confidentiality of the informationthat constitutes the alleged trade secrets. This is only what businesses need to do from a legal perspective. There are many otherpractical things businesses can do, but that’s more a topic for security experts than legal experts
What is the Scope and Effect of the Copyright Act’s Preemption of a State Law Claim For Theft or Misappropriation of Trade Secrets? What Evidence is Insufficient to Avoid Summary Judgment in Favor of the Defendant?
Spear Mktg. v. BancorpSouth Bank, 791 F.3d 586 (5th Cir. 2015)
The Texas Uniform Trade Secrets Act
In this past legislative session, the Texas Legislature enacted the Texas Uniform Trade Secrets Act (“TUTSA”). On September 1, 2013, Texas will join 46 other states that are currently governed by some form of the Uniform Trade Secrets Act. Before enactment of TUTSA, Texas had no central law governing trade secrets. Instead,Texas law on trade secrets was cobbled together from Texas common law, the Restatement of Torts, the Restatement (Third) of Unfair Competition, and the Texas Theft Liability Act. Much of this law was outdated (the Restatement of Torts was drafted in 1939) and was simply not designed for the technological developments of the modern era. As a result, Texas businesses and those businesses looking to expand to Texas were left to guess as to what proprietary information Texas law would and would not protect. TUTSA codifies and modernizes Texas law on misappropriation of trade secrets by providing a simple legislative framework for litigating trade secret cases. Among other things, TUTSA provides an unambiguous and updated definition of trade secrets, a simplified means for obtaining injunctive relief and sealing court records, and an attorneys’ fees provision for recovering fees from those parties who engage in willful and malicious activity.What follows is a section by section analysis of TUTSA. Section 134A.002 of TUTSA contains a list of six new definitions, including definitions for “trade secret,”“misappropriation,” “improper means,” “proper means,” and “reverse engineering.”
Fall, 2014
Includes articles on: "Texas Supreme Court’s Recent Shareholder Oppression Opinions Reaffirm Primacy of Common Law Fiduciary Duties Under Gearhart" by Byron Egan and Michael L. Laussade; "Texas Pattern Jury Charge on Trade Secret Misappropriation Near Completion" by Joe Cleveland; "What Happened to TrueCrypt?" by Ron Chichester; and "Judicial CLE Committee Update: Helping Strengthen Texas" by Evan Young.
Fall, 2014
Includes articles on: "Texas Supreme Court’s Recent Shareholder Oppression Opinions Reaffirm Primacy of Common Law Fiduciary Duties Under Gearhart" by Byron Egan and Michael L. Laussade; "Texas Pattern Jury Charge on Trade Secret Misappropriation Near Completion" by Joe Cleveland; "What Happened to TrueCrypt?" by Ron Chichester; and "Judicial CLE Committee Update: Helping Strengthen Texas" by Evan Young.