Tennessee Business Litigation Law Blog

Tom Brady, quarterback of the New England Patriots, has filed suit against Yahoo!  (Note: that exclamation point is part of the company's name; I'm not expressing rampant enthusiasm or outrage). Brady claims that Yahoo! advertised its fantasy football service in Sports Illustrated using a photograph of Brady without his permission. A copy of Brady's Complaint is available at The Smoking Gun. Brady is seeking, among other things, compensatory and punitive damages in the case.

Tough month for Michigan. Passed over for the national championship game. Now this.

The big news in the commercial litigation world is the Coke trade secrets case. (Link goes to an Associated Press article in The Seattle Times). According to the news reports, one of the defendant's lawyers harkened the case to "something out of a spy novel." On the other hand, the same attorney, who represents a secretary at Coke's headquarters in Atlanta, was quoted as questioning how secret the allegedly stolen product was, and the extent of the measures that Coke undertook to keep it secretive. Of course, the burden is on Coke to prove that the allegedly stolen product was a trade secret and that Coke did take appropriate measures to protect it.

In the category of trade secrets and other information, John Day just linked to an important opinion: a win for Cameron Diaz over unauthorized sale of photos of her topless.

A new study found that one out of twenty employees has sent company secrets to third parties via email. The study also found that 1/4 forward company email to their personal account, and nearly 2/3 use their personal email addresses for business use.

Two things to take away from this study: first, a company must keep a very watchful eye to protect its trade secrets; second, asking and responding to discovery requires looking beyond just the "@corporation.com" email address.

What business information of a company is confidential and protected? This is the first question to ask in lawsuits alleging unfair competition, breach of a non-compete agreement, or suits against a competitor (particularly a former employee) for using the company's information. Tennessee law has largely equated protected, confidential information with trade secrets. (Take a look at Venture Exp., Inc. v. Zilly for example).

The appellate courts have set out six nonexclusive factors that should give you some guidance:

• 1) the extent to which information is known outside of business,
  
• 2) the extent to which it is known by employees of business,
  
• 3) the extent of measures taken to guard the secrecy of the information,
  
• 4) the value of the information to the business and its competitors,
  
• 5) the amount of money or effort expended in developing the information, and
  
• 6) the ease or difficulty with which the information could be properly acquired or duplicated by others.

Look to B&L Corp. v. Thomas & Thorngren, Inc. for a good primer in any case alleging use of confidential business information.