{"id":624,"date":"2011-12-07T18:16:28","date_gmt":"2011-12-07T18:16:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/eleventh-circuit-holds-trade-secrets-claims-barred-by-statute-of-limitations\/"},"modified":"2011-12-07T18:16:28","modified_gmt":"2011-12-07T18:16:28","slug":"eleventh-circuit-holds-trade-secrets-claims-barred-by-statute-of-limitations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/eleventh-circuit-holds-trade-secrets-claims-barred-by-statute-of-limitations\/","title":{"rendered":"Eleventh Circuit Holds Trade Secrets Claims Barred by Statute of Limitations"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Optical Systems Technology, Inc. (\u201cOSTI\u201d) and Knights Armament Company (\u201cKAC\u201d) were the main parties in <span>Knights Armament Company v. Optical Systems Technology, Inc.<\/span><em>,<\/em> No. 09-14480, \u2014 F.3d. \u2014, 2011 WL 3889156 (11th Cir. Sept. 2, 2011).\u00a0 OSTI and KAC had partnered to sell clip-on night vision devices.\u00a0 OSTI manufactured these devices, however, it needed KAC to market the devices and sell them.<\/p>\n<p>The companies had a positive relationship for many years.\u00a0 OSTI would manufacture the devices and KAC would contract with the government to deliver the devices.<\/p>\n<p>In 2003, a dispute arose over who owned the night vision scope technology.\u00a0 The dispute came to a boil when KAC filed its intent to use federal trademark applications for the marks \u201cUniversal Night Sight\u201d and \u201cUNS\u201d.\u00a0 OSTI filed a notice of cancellation seeking to cancel the federal trademark registration for UNS.\u00a0 It filed its own applications for the federal trademarks, which KAC sought to cancel.<\/p>\n<p>In 2007, KAC filed a lawsuit against OSTI.\u00a0 In August of 2008, OSTI filed a second amended counterclaim against KAC as well as its principal.\u00a0 One of the counterclaims it asserted was for misappropriation of trade secrets in violation of the Florida Uniform Trade Secrets Act (\u201cFUTSA\u201d).<\/p>\n<p>KAC moved for partial summary judgment on this claim on the grounds that it was barred by the statute of limitations.\u00a0 FUTSA provides that an action for misappropriation must be brought within three years after the misappropriation has been discovered or by the exercise of reasonable diligence should have been discovered.<\/p>\n<p>In affirming the district court\u2019s grant of partial summary judgment, the Eleventh Circuit described the various evidence establishing that OSTI knew of or should have known of the alleged trade secret misappropriation as early as April 2003, or at least by mid-2004.\u00a0 In OSTI\u2019s own interrogatory answers in response to a question asking when it had become aware of the alleged misappropriation, OSTI stated that it learned through the April 21, 2003 letter from the government to KAC (which OSTI received by e-mail on May 28,\u00a0 2003), that KAC had attempted to misappropriate its UNS drawings.\u00a0 There was also a February 24, 2004 letter from OSTI\u2019s principal to KAC\u2019s principal seeking assurance that OSTI\u2019s proprietary and intellectual property would not be compromised, as well as\u00a0 a response to this letter which OSTI claimed in the litigation was unsatisfactory.\u00a0 The Eleventh Circuit\u2019s opinion identified other evidence and stated that \u201cit is incredible, through discovery, they damningly admit, on the record, that they knew of or suspected KAC\u2019s alleged misappropriation as early as March 2003.\u00a0 In so doing they lose on this issue.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Eleventh Circuit therefore affirmed the district court\u2019s ruling that OSTI\u2019s trade secret misappropriation counterclaim was barred by the statute of limitations as a matter of law.\u00a0 The Eleventh Circuit also affirmed the district court\u2019s rulings on the trademark issues in the case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Optical Systems Technology, Inc. (\u201cOSTI\u201d) and Knights Armament Company (\u201cKAC\u201d) were the main parties in Knights Armament Company v. Optical Systems Technology, Inc., No. 09-14480, \u2014 F.3d. \u2014, 2011 WL 3889156 (11th Cir. Sept. 2, 2011).\u00a0 OSTI and KAC had partnered to sell clip-on night vision devices.\u00a0 OSTI manufactured these devices, however, it needed KAC [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_mo_disable_npp":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,9],"tags":[16,29],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Eleventh Circuit Holds Trade Secrets Claims Barred by Statute of Limitations<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"OSTI and KAC had partnered to sell clip-on night vision devices. 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