Weekly IP Buzz for the Week Ending November 1, 2019

November 4, 2019 Darin M. Klemchuk

In this week's post, we look at how trade secret protection and non-competes are a must-have in especially competitive markets. Getting proper safeguards in place and following protocols for protection of trade secrets is important particularly when the potential for lawsuits arising between competitors is heightened. Example: the beer battle over trade secret theft with Anheuser-Busch suing Coors. As in any trade secret suit, Anheuser-Busch had to lay out for the court how its beer recipe qualifies as a trade secret.

Also, we have collected all the local patent rules for the most active patent litigation jurisdictions in the U.S. There's a link to each court's local rules and local patent rules, by state.

Theft of Trade Secrets: The Newest Chapter in the War of the Beer Companies

A war between beer companies continues to brew. Recently it was a deceptive advertising lawsuit between Anheuser-Busch (“AB”) and Molson Coors Brewing Company (“Coors”) regarding use of corn syrup in beer. Now, it’s a beer battle over trade secret theft with AB suing Coors.

AB and Coors have been battling each other in court since AB aired a Super Bowl advertisement that took aim at Coors by singling out Coors’s use of corn syrup in connection with its beer. Coors sued AB over the advertising campaign, claiming AB was guilty of illegal use of their trademarks as well as deceptive advertising, eventually winning a court ruling that AB's advertising campaign was misleading. The court also went on to issue a preliminary injunction that prohibited AB from using such language in the future and held that AB may only sell off the rest of its products that have been labeled with its “no corn syrup” packaging that it has manufactured as of June 6, 2019, or until March 2, 2020, whichever comes first.

Coming off the heels of Coors’s most recent legal victory, AB has now filed a counterclaim against Coors with allegations that Coors has gained illegal possession of photographs of AB recipes that specifically detail how AB batches are brewed, including but not limited to, information about the specific blend, volume, and weight of its ingredients. Specifically, AB alleges that Coors illegally obtained the recipes for its Michelob Ultra and Bud Light beers from an ex-AB employee that now works for Coors. This new beer giant battle over trade secret theft opens a new chapter between the beer rivals.

Local Patent Rules -- Collection of Rules for the Busiest Patent Litigation Dockets

Local Patent Rules by Jurisdiction

We have collected all the local patent rules for the most active patent litigation jurisdictions in the U.S.

Click here for each court’s local rules and local patent rules, by state. Two examples from the list, California and Texas, are provided below.

California

CACD Local Rules CACD Local Patent Rules

CAED Local Rules

CAND Local Rules CAND Local Patent Rules

CASD Local Rules Note - Local Rules Contain Local Patent Rules

Texas

TXED Local Rules TXED Local Patent Rules

TXND Local Rules TXND Local Patent Rules Note - TXND adopted amended Local Patent Rules effective 10/1/19

TXSD Local Rules TXSD Local Patent Rules

TXWD Local Rules TXWD Local Patent Rules Note - TXWD has not yet adopted formal patent rules

Texas Local Patent Rules Resources

For counsel litigating patent cases in Texas, see our white papers Eastern District Texas Patent Rules: Diagram & Checklist, Southern District of Texas Patent Rules: Checklist, and Texas Patent Rules Northern District: Diagram & Checklist for more detail on Texas Local Patent Rules as well as a diagram of each set of rules and a downloadable checklist.

For a discussion of the recently amended local patent rules for the Northern District of Texas (NDTX Second Amended Miscellaneous Order No. 62, effective October 1, 2019) see our posts 7 Changes to the Northern District of Texas (TXND) Local Patent Rules and Northern District of Texas Adopts Amended Local Patent Rules Effective October 1, 2019.