Trade Secret Misappropriation
Leason Ellis currently represents consumer product developer, Town & Country Linen Corp., better known as Town & Country Living in its suit against its former business associates, Ingenious Designs LLC, Joy Mangano, and HSN, Inc. in the Southern District of New York. Town & Country Linen Corp. has asserted claims of patent and copyright infringement, trade secret and idea misappropriation, unjust enrichment, unfair competition, breach of contract, and tortious interference. The case is currently in discovery, where Leason Ellis’ team, lead by Robert Isackson and Lauren Sabol, is managing the collection, processing, and review of millions of documents.
Best Kept Secret
Leason Ellis is currently litigating a trade secret case that is currently pending in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Our client is suing PepsiCo for misappropriation of a series of trade secrets on adding aroma to products to produce beneficial consumer reactions. The action is based on a 10 year long relationship between the parties during which the information was transferred. Subsequently the client entered an agreement with Coke to use the information only to have PepsiCo publish the information in three patent applications.
ScentSational Technologies,LLC v. PepsiCo, INC., Fed. Cir. Case No. 18-2091
A third party, Mr. Kamden-Ouaffo, started a separate case and also sought to intervene in the ScentSational v. PepsiCo case on the basis that he, as a Pepsi contract employee, invented some of the information, but Pepsi failed to list him on the patent applications. Mr. Kamden-Ouaffo's cases were dismissed ont he grounds that he had assigned all rights in any invetions he made to Pepsi.
KAMDEM-OUAFFO V. PEPSICO INC. ET AL., 14-cv-227 (KMK) (S.D.N.Y)
Mr. Kamden-Ouaffo appealed the dismissal of his cases to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on the basis that his assignment was obtained by fraud and in violation of New York law. He also argued that despite the assignment he had the right to challenge the inventorship on the basis of injury to his reputation. Leason Ellis successfully argued that he failed to meet the standard for establishing standing based on injury to reputation. The dismissal was affirmed.
kamdem-ouaffo v. pepsico inc. et al., 2016-1668 (fed. cir.)
On appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, Mr. Kamden-Ouaffo's petition for a writ of certiorari was denied.