I have a feeling that the plaintiff’s attorney in Angelica Textile Services, Inc. v. Park, case no. D062405 (4th Dist., October 15, 2013), didn’t lament too much the loss of a jury trial on the plaintiff’s claim for trade secret misappropriation, even though on the surface, it looked like plaintiff’s last gasp following the dismissal of plaintiff’s other claims for breach of contract, unfair competition, breach of fiduciary duty, interference with business relations, and conversion, all of which related to conduct that involved the alleged trade secrets. After all, plaintiff had an ace up his appellate sleeve. The merits The claims were all related to the conduct of the plaintiff…
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Manufacturing appellate jurisdiction over a discovery ruling
When I read Brescia v. Angelin, case no. B204003 (2d Dist. Mar. 17, 2009), I was reminded about how Saturday Night Live once ran one a commercial parody for a product with the advertising slogan “It’s a dessert topping! It’s a floor wax! It’s two products in one!” How do I make that connection? Because when I was done reading the case, I thought, “It’s a dismissal after sustaining a demurrer! It’s a discovery ruling! It’s two rulings in one!” And so did the court of appeal, though it didn’t say it in so many words. Brescia cross-complained against respondents for trade secret misappropriation. Code of Civil Procedure section 2019.210 requires a…
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Apple v. Bloggers Settlement includes Shutdown of Apple Rumor Blog
This isn’t really appellate-related, but I figure that at least some of you must be, as I am, a Mac-using lawyer, and will find this of interest. In this post at The UCL Practitioner, Kimberly Kralowec updates some of her earlier reporting on the Apple lawsuit against some bloggers that had leaked internal Apple information. She provides links to a few articles about the settlement, reminds us that “in 2006, the Court of Appeal ruled that the bloggers were ‘journalists’ and that California’s shield law therefore protected their sources,” and links to some of her earlier coverage about the case.
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How Does a Court Write a Trade Secrets Opinion When It Can’t Disclose the Trade Secrets?
That was the difficult question facing the court in Advanced Modular Sputtering, Inc. v. Superior Court (2005) 132 Cal.App.4th 826. An excerpt from the opening paragraph of the opinion gives you an idea of the substantive issues facing the court (emphasis added): We hold that Code of Civil Procedure section 2019.210 (formerly Code of Civil Procedure section 2019, subdivision (d)), which provides that discovery relating to a trade secret may not commence until the trade secret is identified with “reasonable particularity,” is not limited in its application to a cause of action under the Uniform Trade Secrets Act (UTSA) (Civ. Code, §§ 3426-3426.11), for misappropriation of the trade secret, but…