Protecting and Enforcing Your Trade Secrets in California and Beyond

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An Award of Injunctive Relief Does Not Preclude Continuing Rights to Monetary Damages The primary objective in filing a lawsuit involving misappropriation of a trade secret is to stop the use and disclosure of your critical business information.  But even if your company succeeds in blocking the use of your trade secrets by obtaining an …Read more

Technology Startups:  Picking the Right Business Entity

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Many technology startups fail, often for commercial or business reasons.  Some startups, however, fail because their founders don’t properly address certain important legal issues that confront their company from the outset.  If you err when confronting legal issues that are critical to your company’s success, it will likely haunt you and your co-founders for the …Read more

10 Tips to Protect Confidential Information When Considering Selling Your Company

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So you’re thinking about selling your company because you’ve finally received an offer you think is reflective of all the hard work you and your partners and employees invested over all those years. It’s inevitable that you will have to share some confidential information about your company with the potential buyers during the course of …Read more

7 Questions to Answer Before You Sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement

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Before your company considers sharing its technology or other proprietary information with a potential strategic or commercial partner, you will want to ensure that the information is kept secret and cannot be used for any unauthorized purpose. This is where a non-disclosure agreement (“NDA”) may be useful to you. An NDA is a legally binding …Read more

Top 10 Mistakes to Avoid Managing Your Company’s Trade Secrets

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Whether you’re running a newly minted start-up or leading an established corporation, genuine trade secrets will almost always provide your company with a competitive edge in the marketplace under both federal and state law. But you must handle them properly. Unfortunately, that edge can deteriorate, or vanish entirely, if your company makes one or more …Read more

California Ban on Mandatory Arbitration Permitted by Ninth Circuit

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In a 2-1 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit recently reversed a district court’s order enjoining the enforcement of California Assembly Bill 51 (“AB51”), which is codified as Labor Code section 432.6. The statute prohibits requiring arbitration of California Fair Employment and Housing Act (“FEHA”) and Labor Code claims as a …Read more

Continuing the Family Business After Its Founder Dies

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Managing a family business is difficult enough when the founding generation is still alive. When the founders pass, however, the legal, business and family issues become much more complex because the adult decision makers that everyone relied upon, respected, and listened to, are gone. The children of Robert Smith – Mary, Josh and Matthew – …Read more