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Hwan Kim

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Hwan Kim is a partner in the Corporate Practice Group in the firm's Washington, D.C. office. He also serves as a leader of the firm's International Litigation and Arbitration Team.

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Following the Seventh Circuit’s recent decision in Motorola Solutions Inc. v. Hytera Communications Corp. Ltd., the United States may become a destination venue for resolution of global trade secret disputes. The Seventh Circuit held that U.S. trade secret law applies extraterritorially—reaching the theft of trade secrets outside the United States—so long as “an act in furtherance” of the offense was committed in the United States. The court held, for example, that marketing products in the United States qualified as an “act in furtherance” if the products were made using stolen trade secrets. Once an “act in furtherance” is identified, damages can be based on a company’s global sales. Motorola, for example, resulted in an award of $135.8 million in compensatory damages based on Hytera’s worldwide sales. Similar to the global impact of U.S. antitrust and anti-bribery laws, the Seventh Circuit’s decision highlights the critical importance to companies of considering U.S. trade secret laws. For example, if a company suffers the theft of its trade secrets anywhere in the world, it should consider the United States as a possible venue for bringing a legal claim. Conversely, companies should take measures to train employees and ensure compliance with U.S. trade secret laws even if the employees are located outside of the United States.Continue Reading Companies Should Take Notice of the Extraterritorial Reach of U.S. Trade Secret Law

App developers who pay 30% commission fee to Apple via In-App Purchasing should take note of an important legal decision recently presented to the Supreme Court for possible review. The Supreme Court’s decision whether to take the case, and its ultimate decision if it does take the case, will directly affect the commission that developers must pay Apple to sell their products using the App Store. In particular, Apple has asked the Supreme Court to limit the scope of a permanent injunction issued against it by a lower federal court in the Northern District of California in Epic Games, Inc. v. Apple, Inc. and upheld on appeal by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. (Epic also filed a separate petition requesting Supreme Court review of the lower court’s rejection of certain antitrust claims, but this blog only discusses the petition filed by Apple.) Continue Reading Will Supreme Court Consider Whether to Allow an Alternative to In-App Purchasing on the App Store?