Title Source, Inc. v. HouseCanary, Inc., No. 04-19-00044-CV, 2020 WL 2858866 (Tex. App.–San Antonio  June 3, 2020, pet. granted) is a new case addressing the jury charge in Texas Uniform Trade Secrets Act (TUTSA) cases.  In my previous post about the case,  I discussed the Casteel problem in the misappropriation instructions that resulted in reversal of this multi-million dollar judgment.  (For a complete discussion of the facts, please see this previous blog post.)  The court, however, addressed more than the just the misappropriation question.
Continue Reading More Lessons from Title Source v. HouseCanary

In M-I L.L.C. v. Q’Max Sols., Inc., No. CV H-18-1099, 2019 WL 3565104 (S.D. Tex. Aug. 6, 2019) involves the familiar fact of an employee leaving his employer and taking the employer’s trade secrets with him.  After the employer conducted a forensic investigation and discovered that the departing employee had downloaded the employer’s confidential documents before he departed, the employer sued the employee for various causes of action, including violations of the Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA), violations of the Texas Uniform Trade Secret (TUTSA), and breach of his non-disclosure agreement.
Continue Reading Southern District of Texas Denies Summary Judgment In Part for Trade Secrets Claim

Companies often debate as to whether their software code should be treated as a trade secret or should be registered as a copyright. There are many variables to consider, but perhaps the most important is whether the company wants its source code to remain a secret. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals provided this recent breakdown of the intellectual property considerations for software code:
Continue Reading What is the Best Intellectual Property Protection for Software?