White & Case

Firm overview:

Global firm White & Case is assembling a growing group of IP practitioners, including those with trade secrets experience or capability, to guide clients around the world through complex domestic and multi-jurisdictional disputes.

The firm has litigated and counselled clients on patent and trade secrets issues across all technology industries. The group has represented clients in the US—from district courts to the Supreme Court—with successful outcomes at appellate levels, and in international fora.

White & Case is also active in arbitrations, before the International Trade Commission, the US Patent Trial and Appeal Board, and other bodies.

Team overview:

White & Case has 19 partners and 53 other lawyers globally with significant activity in trade secrets matters. The team is led by global head of IP, Yar Chaikovsky in Silicon Valley, and includes trade secrets veteran and partner in Washington, DC, Michael Songer.

Chaikovsky was previously co-head of Paul Hastings’ IP group. He joined White & Case in 2023 with a substantial team from Paul Hastings’ Palo Alto IP group.

Songer was the lead trial attorney for DuPont in a precedent-setting trade secrets case involving the trademarked Kevlar product, and obtained a $920 million verdict in damages, the largest contested jury trade secrets verdict at the time.

Counsel in the firm’s Los Angeles office, Andy LeGolvan is entrusted by leading technology companies when serious disputes arise. His experience includes representing Temu in litigation against Shein alleging various IP infringement claims including related to trade secrets; and representing fintech startup Aeldra Financial and its CEO when accused of misappropriating an international bank’s technology trade secrets.

As well as having a strong patents practice, partner Philip Ou is highly knowledgeable when it comes to employment and trade secrets-related issues. Ou joined the firm in 2023 from Paul Hastings and is respected as one of the US’s leading high-tech IP litigation practitioners.

Key matters:

• Beijing Meishe Network Technology v TikTok, et al, 23-cv-06012-SI, Northern District of California, 2024)

White & Case is defending TikTok and parent company ByteDance against allegations filed in the Western District of Texas by artificial intelligence audio and video company Beijing Meishe Network Technology Company.

Meishe accused TikTok of copyright infringement in China, misappropriation of trade secrets developed in China under the US Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA), misappropriation of trade secrets under the Texas Uniform Trade Secrets Act  (TUTSA), and Lanham Act false advertising.

The White & Case team successfully transferred the case from the Western District of Texas to the Northern District of California in a landmark, precedential Fifth Circuit decision, In re TikTok.

The TikTok case augurs a trend of potential new cases taking advantage of the broad jurisdictional language of the DTSA. This provides a roadmap of how US companies can be sued by a foreign company for alleged trade secrets misappropriation of foreign trade secrets that occurred entirely outside the US.

The broad jurisdiction of the DTSA for criminal cases also permits plaintiffs to bring cross-border civil cases that would not have been possible under state uniform trade secret acts.

TikTok was advised by a White & Case team led by Yar Chaikovsky, David Okano and Michael Songer.

Clients:

Aeldra Financial, ByteDance/TikTok, Bloom Energy Corporation.