A Trade Secrets Attorney Can May You Whole

For many businesses, trade secrets and intellectual property are at the core. If you feel as though you have been a victim of intellectual property theft, a trade secrets attorney from our firm can gain an understanding of the situation and provide legal assistance. We have handled many of these cases in the past, and our track record of success speaks volumes about the efficacy of our representation.

Former Employee Actions

There is one form of intellectual property theft that trade secrets attorneys see relatively frequently. The best way to explain is to provide a simple hypothetical example. You have an employee that is privy to sensitive trade secrets. He asks you for a raise, and you have serious reservations.

This employee is not very easy to get along with, and he is frequently absent. When you weigh everything, you decide that he can be easily replaced, and you decline his request for a salary increase. A couple of weeks later, he tenders his resignation and he moves on.

Several months down the road, you are reading an article in a business publication about a company that is utilizing a “new” technology. In fact, this is a proprietary technology that you have developed. You look into the matter closely, and you find that your former employee is now working at this company. When he was with you, he worked on a project that led to the development of this technology.

Under these circumstances, you would definitely want to engage a trade secrets attorney from our firm. We would have the ability to dig deeply into the matter and find out the truth one way or another, and we can uncover cold hard evidence. Our firm has a great deal of experience in this area, so we have developed a network of professionals that can lend their expertise.

For example, cell phones and computers can contain very valuable evidence that can make a case. Just because it has been deleted does not mean that it cannot be recovered by a top-notch forensics expert. We have access to professionals that have extraordinary forensic capabilities.

Under-the-Radar Intellectual Property Theft

The example that we shared above is rather straightforward. If you see that someone that was previously on your staff has misused proprietary information, you know that you probably have a case. However, there are other situations that are rather subtle.

There is a very interesting case that came out of the entertainment industry a number of years ago. Warner Brothers Entertainment made a motion picture call The Hangover Part II. The star of the movie, Ed Helms, played the role of a rather boring dentist that was anything but a risk taker. He goes to Bangkok, Thailand on vacation, and he indulges in a night of wild partying.

When he wakes up the next morning, he goes over to the sink to wash up, and much to his chagrin, he sees that he has a tribal tattoo framing his left eye. The former boxer Mike Tyson made a brief cameo appearance in original The Hangover movie. The tattoo that the dentist character had in Part II is identical to Tyson’s face tat. This was done intentionally to comedically allude to the first movie.

Sounds like a good idea, right? It may have been good comedy, but Mike Tyson’s real-life tattoo artist wasn’t laughing, and his lawyers were not laughing either. They argued that this was an act of intellectual property theft. The attorneys were ready to take the case to trial, and a judge said that they did have a case. Warner Brothers wanted to avoid a lengthy, drawn out trial that could have delayed the release of the movie, so they negotiated a settlement with the tattoo artist.

We Are Here to Help!

As you can see from this tattoo case, you could have an intellectual property theft case even if the situation is a little bit out of the ordinary. You should never make assumptions until you have discussed the matter with a licensed trade secrets attorney. If you would like to speak with one of our attorneys about a potential intellectual property theft case, we would be more than glad to assist you.

We offer no obligation consultations, and we can sit down with you, gain understanding of the details, and advise you accordingly. To set the wheels in motion, send us a message through our contact page or call us at 714-406-4420.