Recent News:
Samuel Lewis authored an article discussing the complexities and challenges of using noncompetition agreements in intellectual property law to protect a company's trade secrets.
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In this era of intense competition, increased employee mobility and electronic information, theft of trade secrets, computer abuse, and employee raiding cases are becoming ever more prevalent and increasingly difficult to prevent. Additionally, the number of new federal and state statutes relating to restrictive covenants, trade secrets, computer abuse, and theft of electronic information, and the interaction of potentially conflicting state laws, increases the complexity of these matters for companies that do business in multiple jurisdictions. Add to this mix the Federal Trade Commission's Final Rule invalidating most noncompete agreements and the landscape is thornier than ever. Companies now face multi-dimensional problems involving the interaction of employment law, intellectual property law, computer law, cybersecurity law, insurance law, privacy law, and having to address those issues in multiple jurisdictions at both the state and federal levels — sometimes simultaneously.
Cozen O’Connor’s team of lawyers across the country are ready to assist national and multinational corporations, midsize businesses, and startups facing unfair competition matters. Our practice blends skilled attorneys from our labor and employment, intellectual property, and commercial litigation practices. Collectively, these attorneys have implemented and litigated nationwide restrictive covenants, invention assignment agreements, and confidentiality agreements. We have handled hundreds of injunction proceedings relating to theft of trade secrets, theft of computer data, restrictive covenants, and breach of employee loyalty in almost every state and court in the nation. Should a case proceed to trial, Cozen O’Connor attorneys have extensive first-chair jury-trial experience in large multi-jurisdictional cases involving restrictive covenants, theft of trade secrets, unfair competition, computer fraud and abuse, and duty of loyalty claims. We have successfully obtained and defeated emergency injunctions, won multimillion-dollar verdicts on behalf of plaintiffs, achieved full exoneration on behalf of defendants, and obtained fee awards on behalf of both, where possible.