Celebrating 20 Years of IP Excellence

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Weekly IP Warm-UP!

GOOGLE V. SPAIN – SPANISH PUBLISHERS SUFFER AS GOOGLE NEWS CLOSES OPERATIONS A new Copyright law which has made it mandatory for Google, Yahoo and other news aggregators to pay licensing fee to all news publishers for using their stories or snippets in Google News, results in Google cutting its operations in Spain. However, the regulation allowed publishers to opt in to Google’s index, and prevent Google from paying licensing fee. COPYRIGHT REGULATION TO ALLOW PRIVATE COPYING; TO FACE IRE…

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This image depicts the trademark logo of Linkedin. This image is relevant because this post talks about whether Linkedin connections can be considered as trade secrets. Click on the image to view full post.

Are LinkedIn Connections Trade Secrets?

This question came up in an Employer-Employee trade secret dispute before a California Court. David Oakes was working in a sales position with a company called Cellular Accessories under an Employment Agreement with a clause to safeguard the company's trade secrets. As a part of his employment with Cellular Accessories, David established more than nine hundred contacts on LinkedIn and maintained the list on his computer. The list was updated whenever a new contact was made. On leaving the company,…

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This image depicts a confused and hesitant man working on a computer. This image is relevant because the post talks about the possibility of maintaining trade secrecy. Click on the image to view full post

Is Trade Secrecy Always Possible?

The possibility of protection and a company's capability to protect a secret is indeed an important factor to be considered while defining the nature of protection. Though many factors may be in favor of trade secret protection over patent protection, the incapability of an organization to maintain secrecy is a very important factor and may shift the balance. The kind of information sought to be safeguarded, measures required for protection, nature of business, organization's stature, and so on play a very…

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