Patrick Keating

Texas Trade Secrets

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Trade Secret Licensees

January 15, 2018 / / 0 Comments

Last May, I wrote about an amendment to the Texas Uniform Trade Secret Act (“TUTSA”) that would become effective on September 1, 2017.  Now that the amendment is in effect, I looked back at one of the changes to the statute caused by the amendment that should bolster trade secret licensees’ efforts to assert theft of trade secret claims. The counter-argument would be that only the owner of the trade secret is entitled to assert the claim.

Prior to the 2017 amendment, TUTSA did not include a definition of “owner.” However, the statute did include several references to owners of trade secrets.

The 2017 amendment added a definition of “owner” that includes within the definition someone who possesses the “right to enforce rights” in the trade secret. Therefore, if the original owner of a trade secret authorizes a licensee to enforce the trade secret, the licensee falls within the new definition of “owner.”

photo credit: Thomas Hawk Speak Until the Dust Settles in the Same Specific Place via photopin (license)

Exit Interviews

August 28, 2017 / / 0 Comments

Employee exit interviews are a useful tool for protecting businesses trade secrets.  Many businesses use exit interviews for a different purpose – eliciting candid answers from a former insider about what the business is doing right and wrong.  It is also a time to talk to the employee about trade secrets that may be at risk due to the employee’s departure.

Trade secrets may be at risk in two different ways.  The first risk is knowledge loss.  The second risk is inadvertent or intentional disclosure of trade secrets to a competitor. Continue reading

The TCPA Statute and Trade Secrets

June 21, 2017 / / 1 Comment

The Texas Citizens Participation Act (“TCPA”) is a statute in Texas that provides protection from frivolous lawsuits to people exercising their U.S. Constitution First Amendment rights.  The law provides a defendant who is sued for exercising the First Amendment right to freedom of speech, freedom of association or the right to petition the government the ability to file a motion to dismiss the lawsuit at the outset of the case.  The statute provides that the case shall be dismissed unless the plaintiff presents the court with evidence establishing a “prima facie case for each element of the claim in question.”

Zach Wolfe is in the midst of an interesting three-part blog post series in which he discusses a May 2017 decision by the Austin Court of Appeals, Elite Auto Body, LLC v. Autocraft Bodywerks, Inc., No. 03-15-00064-CV, 2017 WL 1833495 (Tex. App.—Austin May 5, 2017).  The court concluded that a Plaintiff’s theft of trade secrets claim was, in part, subject to a TCPA motion to dismiss.  Continue reading

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