The Summer 2020 Edition of the quarterly IT & Data Protection Newsletter by Reed Smith Germany has just been released:
In this edition we cover the following topics:
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Companies and their workforces across the globe have been impacted by COVID-19 in ways that threaten critical trade secrets and other IP assets, and that require greater vigilance to protect them. The massive increase in the world’s remote workforce, as well as numerous terminations and furloughs, create a heightened risk of theft or inadvertent disclosure…
The Spring 2019 Edition of the quarterly IT & Data Protection Newsletter by Reed Smith Germany has just been released.
We provide updates on cookies and tracking tools, Facebook fan pages, fines under GDPR, influencer marketing, email encryption, platform provider obligations, framing, the new German Trade Secrets Act, and more. The newsletter also includes multiple…
On April 26, the Geschäftsgeheimnisgesetz (Trade Secrets Act, “Act”) came into effect. It took Germany over a year from the implementation deadline to transpose the Trade Secrets Directive (“Directive”) into national law. The Act replaces the provisions of the Unfair Competition Act on misappropriation of trade secrets and introduces new procedural rules for trade secret…
In anticipation of the implementation of the Trade Secrets Directive, the topic of know-how protection has been widely discussed. Dr Anette Gärtner, along with Sabrina Gossler, has written an article which explores the current legal situation in Germany, analyses the relevant provisions of the Directive and explains the immediate next steps for companies operating in…
Almost three years after its initial proposal, the Trade Secrets Directive has been formally adopted by the European Council and published in the Official Journal on 15 June (2016/943/EU). Member states will have until 9 June 2018 to implement the Directive’s provisions. As we reported last year, the Directive aims to harmonize the divergent body…
Following President Obama’s signing of the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act (“DTSA” or the “Act”) into law last week, parties are beginning to file lawsuits asserting claims under the DTSA. As widely reported, before the DTSA’s enactment, civil trade secret legislation was solely a creature of state law. Consequently, absent another basis for federal jurisdiction, parties could only bring a civil trade secret claim in state court. The DTSA dramatically changed trade secret litigation practice by opening the door to federal court through creation of a federal civil trade secret misappropriation cause of action.
Application of the DTSA, however, is not retroactive. By the express language of the Act, it only applies to acts of misappropriation occurring on or after May 11, 2016, the date on which it was enacted.
Continue Reading First Round of Defend Trade Secrets Act Complaints Alleging Misappropriation Activity Both Before and After DTSA’s Enactment: Will They Stick?
For years, employers have sought access to federal courts for trade secret misappropriation claims against departing employees who have taken the employer’s proprietary information to use in a new venture or for a new employer. Absent diversity, employers’ options to secure federal jurisdiction were limited, however.
In the 2000s, employers began including claims under the…
The European Commission has announced a proposal for a directive “on the protection of undisclosed know-how and business information (trade secrets) against their unlawful acquisition, use and disclosure.” This measure will prove popular in the context of a recent survey in the “Study on Trade Secrets and Confidential Business Information in the…
