I know what you’re thinking: “Trademarks and copyrights are fun, but when do we get to the REALLY fun stuff?” Well, loyal reader, wait no longer: I give you…EXPORT CONTROL REGULATIONS!!! No reaction? Well, you might want to reconsider that, since violations of export control regulations can carry severe penalties (criminal penalties can be up to 20 years imprisonment and $1 million per violation; administrative monetary penalties can reach $11,000 per violation, and $120,000 per violation in cases involving items controlled for national security reasons). Many businesses are unaware of the Export Administration Regulations (the “EAR”), which govern export control […]

Sorry, folks, no cheeky title here – this is serious business.  Theft of trade secrets is a significant threat to businesses, and the country’s economic growth – by some estimates, trade secret theft and economic espionage cost the U.S. economy tens, and perhaps even hundreds, of billions of dollars each year (see https://www.fbi.gov/news/testimony/combating-economic-espionage-and-trade-secret-theft). On the federal level, the primary weapon against such theft has been the Economic Espionage Act.  The Economic Espionage Act had a significant shortcoming, however – it only allowed for criminal and civil action to be taken by the federal government.  The actual victims of trade secret […]

For those just tuning in, a patent holding company called Lodsys recently made waves in the Apple app dev community by claiming that it owns patents covering in-app purchasing technology enabled by Apple’s API’s.  Lodsys sent threat letters to numerous parties and actually sued a handful of them.  Apple, for its part, claims that all Apple developers are authorized to used the relevant technology because of a licensing deal that Apple made with a predecessor to Lodsys’s patent rights.  Lodsys seems to disagree with Apple on this point (instead claiming that only Apple itself may use the technology), and has […]