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Peter Toren | Experienced Intellectual Property Lawyer

Protecting Your Intellectual Property Rights & Data

You can count on me to help protect and enforce your intellectual property rights whether you are an individual inventor or a small enterprise, and regardless of the amount involved. I have been retained by companies shortly before trial and have stepped in and successfully saved the case. I am ready to fight for your rights at any stage of the litigation.

Featured Post

Stakeholders Speak Out on Google v. Oracle

First published in IPWatchdog.com The most interesting aspect of the Google v. Oracle case is that the court failed to address the issue of copyrightability, however, given the court’s approach to fair use it is uncertain as to whether this really matters. In short, the decision is likely to come as a big relief for the tech industry, as a decision in favor of Oracle could have made it more difficult to develop interoperable software. In an amicus brief filed with the court, Microsoft argued that the Federal Circuit’s decision that use of the code was not fair use, and could have had “profoundly negative consequences for the computer industry, which according to Microsoft depends on a robust fair use doctrine to ensure that software from different vendors will work well together.” In addition to a victory for at least one segment of the tech industry, the Supreme Court supported a broad ...
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Recent Posts

Ex Parte Seizures Five Years After the Enactment of the Defend Trade Secrets Act

This was first published in IPWatchdog on March 26, 2021.    “Parties seeking the extraordinary remedy of an ex parte seizure order should emphasize whether, for example, the defendant has a high level of computer proficiency and that such a defendant may find ways to hide, quickly disseminate, or otherwise destroy key evidence if such relief were not granted.” Almost five years have passed since the enactment of the Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA) on ...
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Ninth Circuit Gives Guidance on Specification of Trade Secrets Under the Defend Trade Secrets Act

This was first published in IPWatchdog on February 2, 2021. “The court found that the identification of trade secrets is an ‘iterative process where requests between parties lead to a refined and sufficiently particularized trade secret identification.’” Two of the most important issues in trade secret cases involve the timing of when the plaintiff is required to identify its alleged trade secrets and the degree of specificity with which they must be identified. However, the ...
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DOJ’s “China Initiative”: An Upate

2020 was the two-year anniversary of the Department of Justice’s “China Initiative,” which was intended to increase the focus on the investigation and prosecution of trade secret theft and economic espionage with a Chinese connection under the Economic Espionage Act (“EEA”). According to the DOJ, it charged three economic espionage cases under 18 U.S.C. sec. 1831 (in which the trade secret was intended to benefit the Chinese government, bringing the total to five since the ...
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Supreme Court Ponders Proper Application of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act

This article was first published in IPWatchdog.com on December 1, 2020. “On balance, and while it is sometimes difficult to forecast a Supreme Court outcome, the Court seemed extremely troubled by the government’s position.” In Van Buren v. United States, argued yesterday, the Supreme Court has a chance to address how the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) applies when a defendant is authorized to access and obtain information from a computer but subsequently uses ...
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Defending Trade Secrets with Protective Orders

This article was first published in IPWatchdog.com on October 27, 2020. “Plaintiffs must require the entry of a detailed stipulated protective order that adequately addresses the handling of trade secrets during pre-trial but also covers the trial and post-trial proceedings, including any appeal.” Plaintiffs in trade secret cases are often faced with the difficulty of protecting their trade secrets, especially during trial, when different rules apply than during the pre-trial proceedings. It certainly makes little ...
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Trade Secrets Lessons from Epic Systems Corp. v. Tata Consultancy Services

“This is one of the largest-ever awards in a trade secret case. For smaller companies, it may be large enough to put them out of business. It is critical, therefore, that companies take steps, including training employees not to steal trade secrets.” On August 20, the Seventh Circuit in Epic Systems Corp. v. Tata Consultancy Services Ltd & Tata America Interntional Corp d/b/a/ TCS America No. 1950 (7th Cir. Aug. 20, 2020) upheld an award ...
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Improper Means’: The Eleventh Circuit’s Very Dubious Trade Secrets Decision in Compulife Software v. Newman (Part II)

This article was first published in IPWatchdog.com on July 14, 2020. “The court’s analysis is flawed, and it relies on authority that is of limited value.” Part 1of this article addressed the Eleventh Circuit’s decision in Compulife Software, Inc. v. Newman, __ F.3d __, 2020 WL 2549505, (11th Cir. May 20, 2020) and the court’s dubious conclusion that information “scraped” from a public website could be a trade secret. In particular, on this issue, the ...
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Are Machines “Agents” for Purposes of the Patent Venue Statute? (Part II)

This article was originally published in IPWatchdog.com “As technology evolves, and especially as artificial intelligence becomes smarter, plaintiffs will present new and creative arguments that the defendants have established a ‘regular place of business’ in a certain jurisdiction.” Part I of this article provided an overview of the Federal Circuit’s understanding of the patent venue statute after the Supreme Court’s decision in TC Heartland, and especially the meaning of In re: Google LLC, 949 F.3 ...
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  • Co-author: Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016 Handbook, (Wolters Kluwer, 2016).
  • Author: Intellectual Property and Computer Crimes, published by the Law Journal Press division of American Lawyer Media. Considered a “must have desk reference for an overview of copyrights, patents, trade secrets, trademarks, computer crime and the key federal and state statutes pertaining to intellectual property and computer crime.” First published in 2003, has been updated twice a year since then. Featured in the Bowdoin College magazine, Spring 2010.
  • Protection of Trade Secrets by Law Firms, Federal Bar Council Quarterly, Sept./Oct./Nov. 2018, at 10.
  • Some Lessons From the Waymo (Alphabet) Versus Uber Theft of Trade Secret Litigation, February 14, 2018, (http://www.ipwatchdog.com/2018/02/14/waymo-uber-theft-trade-secret-litigation/id=93528/).
  • Trump Campaign Officials Likely Violated the CFAA, Law360, November 15, 2017 (https://www.law360.com/articles/985452/trump-campaign-officials-likely-violated-cfaa).
  • Who Will Rescue The U.S. Patent System? Law360, September 28, 2017 (https://www.law360.com/ip/articles/968560/who-will-rescue-the-us-patent-system-).
  • Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, GPSolo, ABA Solo, Small Firm and General Practice Section, September/October 2017 (Selected as Best of ABA Sections).
  • Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, Landslide-A publication of the ABA Section of Intellectual Property, Vol. 9, No. 5 May/June 2017 (https://www.americanbar.org/content/aba/tools/digitalassetabstract.html/content/dam/aba/publications/landslide/2017-may-june/aba-landslide-v009n05-computer-fraud-abuse-act.pdf).
  • Available Remedies under the DTSA, IPWatchdog, July 18, 2016 (http:// http://www.ipwatchdog.com/2016/07/18/available-remedies-dtsa/id=70899/).
  • Handle with Care: Civil Seizure Under the Defend Trade Secrets Act, IP Watchdog, July 5, 2016 (http://www.ipwatchdog.com/2016/07/05/handle-care-civil-seizure-defend-trade-secrets-act/id=70438/).
  • Misappropriation of a Trade Secret Under the DTSA, IPWatchdog, June 10, 2016 (http://www.ipwatchdog.com/2016/06/10/misappropriation-trade-secret-dtsa/id=69826/).
  • Definition of a ‘Trade Secret’ Under the DTSA, IPWatchdog, May 24, 2016, (http://www.ipwatchdog.com/2016/05/24/defintion-trade-secret-dtsa/id=69262/).
  • Five Things to Know About the Defend Trade Secrets Act, IPWatchdog, May 11, 2016 (http://www.ipwatchdog.com/2016/05/11/five-things-know-defend-trade-secrets-act/id=68954/).
  • Are You Making 'Reasonable Efforts' to Safeguard Your Client's Information? Legaltech news, March 10, 2016 (http://m.legaltechnews.com/?)
  • 2016 Marks 30th Anniversary of CFAA – Time for a Change, Law360, January 3, 2016 (http://www.law360.com/ip/articles/739442/2016-marks-30th-anniversary-of-cfaa-time-for-a-change).