Intellectual Property Law

Chapter 22 Discussion Questions

1. The senior executives of ABC Inc. have gone on a weekend “retreat” at a hotel to
brainstorm ideas about the company’s plans to develop a new and innovative
camera lens. When the executives leave the unlocked conference room for lunch
in the hotel café, they leave notes and diagrams on the conference room’s
whiteboard as well as briefing papers about the camera lens. A hotel employee
misappropriated the information and sold it to a competitor. ABC would like to
sue for misappropriation of its trade secrets. Discuss whether “reasonable efforts”
have been made to maintain the information.

2. Employees of Vandalay Inc. are subject to nonsolicitation agreements by which
they agree not to solicit employees of Vandalay if they become employed by
another company. After Jillian left Vandalay, she ran into one of her friends at
Vandalay and said, “You should come work for ABC. It’s great here!” Discuss
whether this act is a violation of Jillian’s nonsolicitation agreement.

3. A company’s nondisclosure agreement states as follows: “Employees may not
disclose the company’s trade secrets, consisting of its software and financial
data.” Discuss whether such a nondisclosure agreement might be enforceable.

4. Paul is an employee of LMN Inc. After one year with the company, LMN asks
him to sign a noncompete agreement. Discuss whether such a noncompete
agreement might be enforceable.

5. Sydney is attempting to raise money from investors for her new start-up. In
negotiations with potential investors, she discusses quite a bit of information
about the nature of her business and its methods. Discuss whether the investors
have any duty to maintain the confidentiality of the information disclosed to them.

6. Leo bought a can of unpatented rust remover at Home Depot. He analyzed its
contents to determine its ingredients and then began selling his own competitive
product. Is this permissible? Discuss.

7. Assume in the previous question that Leo bribed an employee to bring him a can
of the rust remover so he could analyze it and begin selling a competitive product.
Is this permissible? Discuss.