COPYRIGHT LAW - TRADE SECRETS - STATUTES OF LIMITATIONS - ACCRUAL - CONTINUING WRONG DOCTRINE |
| Allied Erecting and Dismantling Co. in action http://www.aed.cc/gallery/index.html |
Allied Erecting and Dismantling Co. v. Genesis Equipment & Manufacturing, Inc., 805 F.3d 701 (6th Cir. November 3, 2015).
Father & son have a fight. Son leaves Allied with a laptop containing 15,000 pages of Allied documents including highly confidential documents relating to demolition machine attachments called the Allied MT. Son goes to Genesis. Genesis releases tools remarkably similar to Allied's products. In a diversity case, Allied brings a claim under Ohio's Uniform Trade Secrets Act. After a 2006 litigation is successful following a jury trial in which Allied obtains over $3,000,000 in unjust enrichment damages but does not obtain injunctive relief (after requesting it from the district court). District court determines that unjust enrichment covers the misappropriation. Sixth Circuit affirms. Genesis releases another new and similar tool. District court suggests that Allied needs to bring a new lawsuit to assert claims. Allied brings new case in 2013.
The OUTSA has a four-year statute of limitations. The district court found that the second action was barred by the statute of limitations.
Analysis: The Sixth Circuit determined that, unlike copyright infringement cases, trade secret cases use the "single claim" rule based on when the victim had knowledge of the misappropriation. The Sixth Circuit contrasted copyright infringement claims based on the "continuing wrong doctrine" where each successive infringement gives rise to a new claim. However, the Sixth Circuit determined that the doctrine of issue preclusion was the grounds for affirming the district court's dismissal.
Issue preclusion is the appropriate doctrine for analyzing successive federal lawsuits. Allied's application for an injunction had already been denied in the prior action and the denial affirmed by the Sixth Circuit.
In my book Copyright Litigation Handbook (Thomson Reuters Westlaw 2015-2016), Chapter 5: Calculating Dates Prior To Commencing Litigation deals with the issue of how to calculate statutes of limitations. Chapter 12: Injunctions and Seizures gives checklists and covers the case law relating to injunctive relief. The full table of contents is here.
A successful plaintiff may nonetheless be left unhappy. This case suggests that the jury instructions may not have been as clear as the plaintiff might have liked, with the district judge left to assume that an unjust enrichment award permitted future use of misappropriated materials.
www.dunnington.com
Copyright law, fine art and navigating the courts. All practice, no theory.Copyright Litigation Handbook (Thomson Reuters Westlaw 2015-2016) by Raymond J. Dowd
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