Archive for March 2020
The Scientist and the Spy by Mara Hvistendahl
The history of corporate espionage in the United States is not a recent development. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the British textile industry was by far the largest in the world and was largely driven by its technological superiority especially the “Cartwright Loom,” which was considered the crown jewel of that industry. Using…
Read MoreLevandowski Agrees to Plead Guilty to Charges Under the EEA.
On March 19, 2020, Anthony Levandowski, a pioneer of self-driving car technology, announced that he worked out a plea deal with federal prosecutors to plead guilty to one count of trade secret theft under the Economic Espionage Act. His trial was set for January 2021. Levandowski also recently filed for bankruptcy protection citing a $179…
Read MoreThe Fragile Nature of Trade Secrets: Clues from the Courts on How to Keep Them
“While companies are not required to institute every security measure possible to ensure that their confidential information qualifies as a trade secret, the more security measures implemented, the greater the likelihood that courts will find that the trade secret owner undertook ‘reasonable measures.’” Trade secrets have become an increasingly valuable asset to many companies, but…
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