Source Code - Risk Losing Trade Secret Protection in Government Funded Projects

Lexology recently posted an interesting article concerning trade secret protection (or lack thereof) for source code developed exclusively using government funding. The federal court in Louisiana found that the defendants did not missapproptiate any trade secret because the source code was not a trade secret. Among other reasons cited by the court for its decision, the plaintiff had granted all rights in the source code to the government per the language in the contract and the plaintiff did not show any evidence that it had reserved any rights in the source code for itself. Here is the case - L-3 Communications Westwood Corporation. v. Robichaux Et Al.

ZapMedia Claims Apple iTunes Infringes Patents

Apple is being sued by ZapMedia Services, Inc. in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. The complaint alleges that Apple's iTunes store and its consumer products infringe two patents that ZapMedia Services holds. ZapMedia Services contends that it had notified Apple of its infringing activity and had offered to license its patents to Apple. Clearly, both parties have a lot at stake in this matter. Apple has revolutionized the music industry with its iTunes store and related consumer products, and iTunes is one of the driving forces behind Apple's phenomenal growth story. If ZapMedia Services is successful in its claim against Apple, it stands to potentially receive significant (and potentially recurring) license fees for Apple's continued use of the patents. Here is a link to the case: http://marketing.justia.com/tos.html