Client Alerts

Sometimes clients and businesspeople conflate Trade Secrets and Patents, as though they are the same thing (or at least, similar things). Of course, both generally and usually pertain to innovations, inventions, or proprietary information. Both are ways to protect intellectual property. Both are utilized to give a company an advantage over its competitors.

As noted in an earlier Butzel Long Client Alert on June 21, 2019, the Administration had made available an exclusion process for Section 301 List 3, effective June 30, 2019, and open until September 30, 2019. 

Earlier this year, Tesla, Inc. sued its former employee Quangzhi Cao in federal court in the Northern District of California for trade secret misappropriation. 

President Trump sent global markets diving yesterday afternoon with his surprise Twitter announcement that he will begin imposing a 10% tariff on another $300 billion in Chinese imports (List 4) effective September 1, 2019. President Trump’s tweets noted that the progress of Robert Lighthizer’s and Steve Mnuchin’s talks earlier this week with China were “constructive”, but criticized China for not making progress on the key issue of opening its market to more agricultural products and halting to Chinese exports of Fentanyl.

As reported by our team in recent alerts, there is an emerging trend of states adopting and/or considering legislation to ban or otherwise restrict the use of non-competes against “low wage” employees. Maine, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island are the latest states to jump on the bandwagon and reform their non-compete laws. As summarized below, these laws provide major changes affecting employers and employees. 

            On July 15, 2019, Michigan’s Attorney General, Dana Nessel, joined a group of 17 other State Attorneys General from around the country in urging the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to take a harder line against non-compete and no-poach agreements. 

On July 18, 2019, the Marijuana Regulatory Agency (MRA) released the details of its Social Equity Program enacted by the MRA Adult-Use Marihuana Establishments Emergency Rules.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) has announced that its Web-based portal for collecting pay and hours data for calendar years 2017 and 2018 opened on July 15, 2019. 

LATE MONDAY THE USTR ANNOUNCED A SUPPLEMENTAL LIST OF 89 TARIFF ITEMS FROM THE EUROPEAN UNION THAT ARE BEING PROPOSED FOR ADDITIONAL TARIFFS

Today, the Marijuana Regulatory Agency (“MRA”) released emergency administrative rules to implement the Michigan Regulation and Taxation of Marijuana Act (“MRTMA”). These rules establish the framework for adult-use marijuana establishments and clarify the interplay between the MRTMA and the Medical Marijuana Facilities Licensing Act (“MMFLA”).

On June 29, 2019, President Donald Trump announced at the G-20 summit in Japan that United States companies would be allowed to sell equipment to Huawei provided that those sales did not pose a “great” national security risk. Many news organizations reported that the U.S. had agreed to drop sanctions against Huawei as part of an agreement with China to reopen trade negotiations.

The U.S Supreme Court decided Monday, in Iancu v. Brunetti,  that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) ban on “immoral” or “scandalous” trademarks could not withstand the first amendment challenge.

Employers frequently use template employment agreements containing “one-size fits all” non-compete and non-solicitation provisions. 

The United States Trade Representative (USTR) formally announced the long-awaited exclusion process for $200 billion of products imported from China and subject to tariffs since September of 2018 under Section 301 List 3.  

Introduced legislation says the federal government won't interfere

For many years, interested parties have attempted to change Michigan’s AUTOMOBILE NO-FAULT LAW to benefit various competing interests. The current impetus for change is the unlimited nature of personal injury protection (PIP) under the No-Fault Statute. 

The Department of Education has initiated a far-reaching notice of proposed rulemaking that could make significant changes to higher education. The rulemaking was announced by Secretary DeVos today. 

After much criticism for the backlog in processing Section 232 exclusion requests and pressure from Congress, the Department of Commerce (Commerce) has announced a new Interim Final Rule that changes the process for requesting exclusions from the duties and quantitative limitations imposed on steel and aluminum under action taken by the President pursuant to Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 as amended.

The escalating tariffs that President Trump announced on all goods imported from Mexico are set to commence on June 10th, unless a delegation of Mexican officials meeting with Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and others today are able to convince President Trump that Mexico is taking enough action to stop the flow of immigrants crossing into the United States at its southern border. 

You don’t have to be a trade secrets lawyer to have conversational knowledge of Huawei’s trials and tribulations over the past couple of years.