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Trade Secrets, Noncompetes & Employee Mobility

Trade secrets are often among a company’s most valuable assets. From conducting trade secret audits and drafting trade secret policies and confidentiality agreements to litigating misappropriation and noncompete cases in venues across the country, ArentFox Schiff attorneys have the experience to help clients safeguard their critical assets.

Our Approach

ArentFox Schiff attorneys have notable experience counseling clients on best practices for identifying their valuable trade secrets, and for designing, implementing, and maintaining trade secret policies and protections within the construct of the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act, the Uniform Trade Secrets Act, and related state laws. Our litigators often represent companies seeking to protect and enforce their trade secret rights, as well as defend companies and individuals who are accused of trade secret misuse and misappropriation. We also routinely advise clients on ways to monetize their trade secrets, including through licensing.

ArentFox Schiff stands apart because of our integrated approach. We pair attorneys from our industry-leading practices with our top litigators to create a formidable team. No matter the issue — from obtaining a preliminary injunction to assembling a veteran trial team — we help you marshal the facts, understand the law, and make informed decisions before events take control.

Many of our team members have technical backgrounds and advanced degrees that enable them to fully understand both the underlying technology and the law. They use this knowledge and experience to contribute to teaching efforts by frequently speaking at events and conferences about pressing Trade Secrets laws. Finally, because trade secret misappropriation cases often lead to criminal investigations and potential prosecution by state or federal authorities, we regularly draw upon the experience of our white-collar practice.

How We Help

  • Trade Secret Audits
  • Trade Secret Policies
  • Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs)
  • Assignment of rights provisions for inventors, employees, and contractors
  • Employee Mobility – policies, agreements, negotiation, and enforcement (onboarding and offboarding)
  • Restrictive Covenant and Noncompete Provisions
  • Internal Investigations & Audits
  • Temporary Restraining Orders and Injunctions
  • Disputes & Litigation – including business conspiracy, contract interference claims, and breaches of contract and fiduciary duty obligations
  • Criminal Investigations and Prosecutions

Navigating Trade Secrets and Noncompetes: Analysis of the Year’s Key Cases and Trends

Download our annual survey on developments and trends in the law of trade secrets, noncompetition agreements, and related restrictive covenants.

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Representative Matters

Our attorneys have extensive experience litigating complex misappropriation claims involving computer hardware, software, data security technologies, and proprietary business information to include pricing, customer information, and bid information. Examples of representative trade secret litigation matters include:

  • Lead trial counsel in a complex trade secrets dispute between competitors involving extensive cross-border discovery, where we won summary judgment for our client on all claims and an award of attorney fees as a sanction against plaintiff for commencing the suit in bad faith and submitting materially false affidavits to the court. The victory was profiled in a “How They Won It” feature in Law360 and reported widely in the legal press as the first time an Illinois court had awarded a trade secrets defendant its entire fees for a complex, multi-year litigation.
  • Lead trial counsel in a suit arising from the resignation of our client’s former general manager and his attempt to form a competing business with our client’s long-term exclusive supplier, where we won a TRO and a criminal contempt finding against the supplier, which was sustained on expedited appeal to the Texas Supreme Court on the eve of a jury trial. Before the jury, ArentFox Schiff won a substantial verdict of both actual and punitive damages. 
  • Lead trial counsel where we were engaged as “rescue” trial counsel for defendants in a suit arising from alleged employee raiding of a competitor to form a new business. ArentFox Schiff was engaged only one month before the two-week jury trial and won a unanimous defense verdict on all claims.
  • In a multi-forum litigation, ArentFox Schiff first won a TRO against a departing executive and then, when the defendant attempted to frustrate enforcement by filing a bankruptcy petition and feigning mental illness, won a bad faith dismissal of the bankruptcy case, followed by civil contempt awards against the defendant and two co-conspirators who assisted him to violate the TRO and hide assets, followed by RICO and business tort claims against the contemnors and other associates. The matter was resolved by a confidential global settlement.
  • Obtained a TRO, a Preliminary Injunction, and a Permanent Injunction in California against two employees and their new employer, a major competitor, when the employees left our client to go to work for the competitor. Before they resigned from our client’s employ, the two individuals had systematically downloaded customer contact information, pricing schedules, and other confidential information and had gone to great lengths to hide their downloading efforts.
  • Lead counsel representing a private equity investor in a suit against a selling co-founder and selling shareholder of an acquired business, who secretly formed a competing business with other former employees post-closing. After obtaining the employees’ videotaped confessions admitting the scheme, we won a favorable settlement.
  • Obtained an injunction in California against a former CEO of an acquired agribusiness company who agreed not to compete against the acquiring company for two years after he left its employ. He left and then secretly formed a new company under another individual’s name and tried to surreptitiously provide the know- how he had sold to the acquiring company to the new enterprise.
  • Lead trial counsel in a suit arising from the resignation of our client’s former general manager and the manager’s attempt to form a competing business with other key employees and a long-term exclusive supplier. We won a TRO and a criminal contempt finding against the supplier, which was sustained on expedited appeal to the Texas Supreme Court on the eve of a jury trial. Before the jury, we won a substantial verdict of both actual and punitive damages.
  • Lead trial counsel for the defendants in a complex trade secrets dispute between competing manufacturers of plastic packaging, involving extensive cross-border discovery. We won summary judgment on all claims, and the court awarded our clients recovery of attorney fees as a sanction against the plaintiff for commencing the suit in bad faith, based on a showing that the plaintiff’s general counsel had submitted materially false affidavits to the court.
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