‘Mandatory’ Forum Selection Clause Given Cramped Construction By IL Court (applying Ohio Law) in Hand Lotion Contract Spat

In my experience, when final contracts refer to earlier agreements between the parties, it can present fertile ground for textual conflicts.  Example: I once litigated a severance dispute where the operative employment agreement provided Delaware law (and fixed venue there, too) and incorporated two prior non-compete agreements.  One agreement contained a Nebraska forum clause while …

Photo Album Inventor’s Trade Secrets Case Survives Summary Judgment – IL ND

The Northern District recently discussed the reach of the apparent agency doctrine along with trade secret abandonment in a spat over a photo album device. The plaintiff in Puroon, Inc. v. Midwest Photographic Resource Center, Inc., 2018 WL 5776334 (N.D.Ill. 2018), invented the Memory Book, a “convertible photo frame, album and scrapbook” whose key features …

Third Party Enforcement of A Non-Compete and Trade Secret Pre-emption – IL Law

 (photo credit: www.glogster.com) In Cronimet Holdings v. Keywell Metals, LLC, 2014 WL 580414 (N.D.Ill. 2014), the Northern District of Illinois considers whether a non-compete contract is enforceable by a stranger to that contract as well as trade secret pre-emption of other claims. Facts and Procedural History Plaintiff, who previously signed a non-disclosure agreement with a defunct metal company (the “Target …