Legal Question in Intellectual Property in New York

For the last 8 years, I've worked for a consulting firm that creates brand names for products. I worked for this company in both Tokyo and New York. Although the company shares the same name in Japan and the US, I believe they are separate legal entities, all owned by a US-based communications holding company.

In 2006, while working for the company in Tokyo, I named a hit product in the video game sector. Our client was a big player in that space. My company in Tokyo had a confidentiality agreement with the client to not reveal that my company had created the name.

In 2008, I relocated to the US and worked for the same consulting firm in New York. Our New York office has openly violated the Japanese confidentiality agreement and talked to the public and media about how the firm created the name for this product. I have since left the firm and started my own practice naming brands. Upon leaving, I signed a standard confidentiality agreement with my previous company in New York not to speak about work I did for that company. It is unclear if that agreement extends to my time working for the company in Japan, where I don't believe I signed a confidentiality agreement.

As part of my marketing efforts for my current business, I would like to write and post a blog entry on my company website that outlines how, while I was working for my previous employer in Tokyo, I created this brand name for the Japanese client.

Can you offer any insight on the potential risks I might face from the following?

1. My previous employer in New York

2. My previous employer in Tokyo, Japan.

3. The game manufacturer client in Tokyo.

4. The game manufacturer client in the US (they're completely global).

Kind regards.


Asked on 7/01/10, 10:32 am

1 Answer from Attorneys

Gerry Elman Elman Technology Law, P.C.

Yes, I could offer some insight on the subject, but it should be in the context of a confidential attorney-client relationship.

In that regard, see my talk on "Where's My Free Legal Advice?" from the World Technology Summit, July 2009, at http://www.wtn.net/summit2009/webcastday2.html (third from last on the page).

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Answered on 7/01/10, 2:58 pm


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