Free for a Fee

Zynga, the company that has long been accused of stealing other companies’ game concepts and adding the word “Ville” to them, is now accusing a former employee of stealing ideas from them. On October 12, social gaming company Zynga filed a complaint in a San Francisco court against Alan Patmore, the company’s former general manager for the CityVille game, alleging that he stole trade secrets from the company before going to work for competitor Kixeye.

More

The content in this post was found at http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2012/10/zynga-sues-former-cityville-exec-accusing-him-of-stealing-game-ideas/ and was not authored by the moderators of freeforafee.com. Clicking the title link will take you to the source of the post.

More

The content in this post was found at http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/01/amd-accuses-former-top-employees-of-stealing-over-100000-documents/ and was not authored by the moderators of freeforafee.com. Clicking the title link will take you to the source of the post.

[Post by Venkat Balasubramani]

Mintz v. Bartelstein & Assocs, CV 12 02554 SVW (SSx) (Aug. 14, 2012)

Mintz is a sports agent who represents among others, some NBA players. He worked for Bartelstein & Associates for 11 years. After leaving to accept a position with a competitor (CAA), he sought declaratory relief to invalidate his non-compete agreement. Bartelstein counterclaimed saying that Mintz allegedly misappropriated trade secrets and conspired with Mintz’s current employer to steal clients. Bartelstein subpoenaed Mintz’s phone records from AT&T. The subpoena sought ten categories of documents, the bulk of which related to the dates, times, and numbers/accounts for Mintz’s phone calls. The court grants in part and denies in part Mintz’s motion to quash the subpoena as follows:

more

The content in this post was found at http://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2012/08/stored_communic.htm and was not authored by the moderators of freeforafee.com. Clicking the title link will take you to the source of the post.

[Post by Venkat Balasubramani with comments by Eric]

Weingand v. Harland Financial Solutions, C 11 3109 EMC (N.D. Cal.; June 19, 2012)

Weingand involves claims brought by an employee, and proposed counterclaims brought by the employer against the employee. Nor surprisingly, the employer tried to assert claims under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (and California Penal Code section 502, a state anti-hacking statute). The court grants the employer’s motion for leave to amend, finding that the counterclaims would survive a 12(b)(6) motion.

more

The content in this post was found at http://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2012/08/employees_poste.htm and was not authored by the moderators of freeforafee.com. Clicking the title link will take you to the source of the post.

[Post by Venkat Balasubramani, with comments from Eric]

WEC Carolina Energy Solutions LLC v. Miller, et al., 2012 WL 3039213 (4th Cir.; July 26, 2012)

We’ve blogged about the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act being stretched by plaintiffs in civil (particularly employment) cases. The Ninth Circuit in Nosal recently gave the statute a more limited interpretation, although it left some things unclear. (Here’s our blog post on the Nosal en banc panel opinion: “Comments on the Ninth Circuit’s En Banc Ruling in U.S. v. Nosal.”) The Fourth Circuit recently followed Nosal’s approach and went one step further. Both of these rulings make it much more difficult for employers to use the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act against departing employees.

more

The content in this post was found at http://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2012/07/4th_circuit_lim.htm and was not authored by the moderators of freeforafee.com. Clicking the title link will take you to the source of the post.