KMK Law Intellectual Property Blog

Although substantive portions of trademark license agreements receive most of the attention, as shown in a recent decision of the Delaware Court of Chancery, choice of law provisions, such as those frequently found in the boilerplate of most agreements, should receive careful consideration as well. In Mrs. Fields Brand, Inc. v. Interbake Foods LLC (a copy of which is viewable here), a well-known cookie company, Mrs. Fields as licensor, sought a declaratory judgment that its contract manufacturer, Interbake as licensee, could not terminate their license agreement before the expiration of the then-current term.

With President Obama’s signing of the Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA) on May 11, 2016,  federal intellectual property law has expanded to include trade secrets, which had previously been governed exclusively by state law. Although the text of the DTSA is largely consistent with the Uniform Trade Secrets Act (UTSA), the law which 48 states have adopted in some form to protect trade secrets, this new law contains several features which will provide expanded protection to trade secret owners.