From Law.Com and its Legaltech news former Microsoft CTO Adrian Clarke (Evident Proof) reports on the technology of Blockchain and its purported major security benefits for the supply ecosystem. “The blockchain is a transaction ledger that is uneditable and virtually unhackable. New information can be written onto the blockchain, but the previous information (stored in what are known as blocks) can’t be adjusted. Every single block (or piece of data) added to the chain is given an encrypted identity. Cryptography effectively connects the contents of each newly added block with each block that came before it. So any change to the contents of a previous block on a chain would invalidate the data in all blocks after it.” Clarke’s report here is perhaps some comfort for an exponentially growing sector of the world wide economy which relies on supply chain management on a massive scale. See his piece in Law Journal Newsletters at http://tinyurl.com/y7mqfnem
Attorneys Bill Cheng and John Frank Weaver at McLane Middleton, P.A. in New Hampshire posted this piece in the NH Business Review at: http://tinyurl.com/yblh6nqp regarding the interaction between Blockchain and Bitcoin and how the GDPR for example will struggle to deal with these technologies, given the protections that GDPR attempts to provide to data owners so that they can control their personal information and data. Blockchain, particularly in conjunction with Bitcoin as the currency for a Blockchain secured transaction will prove a challenge to the GDPR rules. CTOs, Industrial Engineers and Supply Chain designers have big decisions to make in the years to come regarding security and whether Blockchain is the answer to some data protection issues. Photo courtesy of Law.Com.
Posted by Henry M. Sneath, Esquire Co-Chair Litigation Practice Group and Chair of the IP Practice Group: Houston Harbaugh, P.C. 401 Liberty Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pa. 15222. Sneath is also an Adjunct Professor of Law teaching two courses; Trade Secret Law and the Law of Trademarks and Unfair Competition at Duquesne University School of Law. Please contact Mr. Sneath at 412-288-4013 or sneathhm@hh-law.com.
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Posted in Business Risk, Computer Technology, Cybersecurity, Data Breach Prevention, Data Breach Response, Data Security, Defend Trade Secret Act 2016, dtsalaw, Technology, Trade Secret
Tagged Data breach, data breach response, data security, DTSA, intellectual property, intellectual property litigation, pittsburgh intellectual property litigation, Pittsburgh Technology, technology
@Proskauer Rose Attorney Steve Kayman and Judicial Law Clerk Lauren Davis published this opinion piece on Law 360 to all of whom we acknowledge their copyright protection. http://tinyurl.com/yaaonlmd “A Call for Nationwide Consistency on Noncompetes” rightly urges for more consistency in the construction and application of laws on Restrictive Covenants and Non-Competes in employment agreements and in the workplace. The authors correctly point out the difficulty that lawyers have in advising corporations, particularly large ones, about the enforceability of restrictive covenants especially when the business and/or employee have interstate commerce. Some states are essentially outlawing non-competes and if an employee leaves one state to work in another, the choice of law and jurisdiction issues generally erupt in any litigation. Kayman rightly points out that courts are looking to extra contractual facts to assist in making a breach of contract decision in lawsuits over these agreements. Finally – Kayman and Davis suggest a possible parallel between this issue and the Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA) which has now created a federal remedy for misappropriation of trade secrets. Trade secret claims are often paired with non-compete claims so this parallel, and new federal legislation might be the solution. The law on these issues is clearly in a state of flux. We thank Kayman and Davis for this opinion piece.
Posted by Henry M. Sneath, Esquire Co-Chair Litigation Practice Group and Chair of the IP Practice Group: Houston Harbaugh, P.C. 401 Liberty Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pa. 15222. Sneath is also an Adjunct Professor of Law teaching two courses; Trade Secret Law and the Law of Trademarks and Unfair Competition at Duquesne University School of Law. Please contact Mr. Sneath at 412-288-4013 or sneathhm@hh-law.com.
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Posted in Business Risk, Defend Trade Secret Act 2016, DTSA, dtsalaw, Employment Agreements, Houston Harbaugh, Non-Compete Agreements, Restrictive Covenants
Tagged DTSA, Employment Agreements, Non-Compete Agreements, Restrictive Covenants, Trade Secrets
FROM DTSALaw®: As we have previously predicted on these pages (and at www.dtsalaw.com ), the number of DTSA lawsuits has risen dramatically in 2017 and the first two quarters of 2018. Lex Machina and IPLaw 360 report that DTSA lawsuits increased from roughly 900 suits to over 1100 in 2018. In the first two quarters of 2018, the number of filings already is 581. The DTSA is still working its way into the legal community’s knowledge base and many practitioners may still be unaware of the most important benefit – of automatic Federal Court jurisdiction for trade secret cases under the 2016 DTSA that involve interstate commerce. The DTSA was signed into legislation as an amendment to the Economic Espionage Act (EEA) and with EEA is a powerful tool in the arsenal of litigation strategies in both the employment and non-employment arenas. Many DTSA claims are part of claims brought to enforce employment restrictive covenants, which restrictive covenant claims themselves are becoming disfavored by the states and their courts. As “non-compete” claims find less favor with the courts, lawyers should look carefully at the DTSA (and EEA) for civil claims that might apply. IPLaw 360 reports as well that only 19 cases filed to date have reached a conclusion on the merits of trade secret misappropriation. Results were essentially evenly split between plaintiffs and defendants. Houston Harbaugh, P.C. (www.hh-law.com) has an aggressive employment and trade secret practice and Pittsburgh is seeing a number of new cases filed in its Western District Pennsylvania Federal Court. DTSALaw® is a registered trademark of Houston Harbaugh, P.C.
Posted by Henry M. Sneath, Esq. Shareholder and Director; Co-Chair of the Litigation Department; Chair of the IP Department; Houston Harbaugh, P.C. (www.hh-law.com) Pittsburgh, Pa. Please contact Mr. Sneath at 412-288-4013 or sneathhm@hh-law.com
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Posted in Cybersecurity, Defend Trade Secret Act 2016, DTSA, dtsalaw, PUTSA, Trade Secret, Trade Secret Misappropriation
Tagged data security, Defend Trade Secrets Act, DTSA, dtsalaw, intellectual property, intellectual property litigation, pittsburgh intellectual property litigation, trade secret
Here is an article I wrote which was published by DRI in their IDQ (In-house Defense Quarterly) to promote the DRI Corporate Counsel Round Table meeting in Washington D.C. which was held in January. It highlights the uncertainty in business markets and the role of the courts in same. See the article at this link: http://tinyurl.com/y9mov84l
Posted by Henry M. Sneath, Esq. Shareholder and Director; Co-Chair of the Litigation Department; Chair of the IP Department; Houston Harbaugh, P.C. (www.hh-law.com) Pittsburgh, Pa. Please contact Mr. Sneath at 412-288-4013 or sneathhm@hh-law.com
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Posted in Business Risk, Cybersecurity, Data Breach Prevention, Data Breach Response, Data Security, dtsalaw, United States Supreme Court
Tagged Business Risk, Data breach, intellectual property litigation, technology, US Supreme Court Decisions
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