{"id":2697,"date":"2014-04-01T12:29:41","date_gmt":"2014-04-01T12:29:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ncjolt.org\/?p=2697"},"modified":"2020-06-04T20:53:43","modified_gmt":"2020-06-04T20:53:43","slug":"advertising-versus-trade-secret-protection-blackberry-ceos-latest-blog-raises-questions-about-the-companys-legal-strategy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/blogs\/advertising-versus-trade-secret-protection-blackberry-ceos-latest-blog-raises-questions-about-the-companys-legal-strategy\/","title":{"rendered":"Advertising versus trade secret protection: Blackberry CEO\u2019s latest blog raises questions about the company\u2019s legal strategy"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a March 26, 2014 blog post<\/a>, Blackberry CEO John Chen addressed the issue of recent leaks to a forthcoming edition of the Blackberry Smartphone.\u00a0 Chen announced to Blackberry customers and the general public that the company is \u201cpursuing legal action\u201d<\/a> against a party who allegedly illegally obtained the information and made it public. \u00a0While Chen did not provide any further detail regarding what legal action was taken, Blackberry may pursue criminal and trade secret infringement charges.
\nThe party charged allegedly posed as an employee of another cellphone carrier in order to gain access to Blackberry\u2019s secured networks<\/a>.\u00a0 The leak may refer to a new operating system (10.3.0.140) for the Blackberry Z10<\/a>, leaked to the public earlier this week<\/a>.\u00a0 Some websites made the OS available for download<\/a>.\u00a0 Others simply showed a screenshot of the homescreen<\/a>, containing an icon for a new program called \u201cIntelligent Assistant.\u201d\u00a0 The leak may also refer to a larger, tablet-like phone called the Ontario, mentioned on the Crackberry.com online forum.<\/a><\/p>\n

Blackberry\u2019s statement that it will take legal action raises an important question of the balance between adequately protecting trade secrets and adequately marketing a product.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Blackberry\u2019s statement that it will take legal action raises an important question of the balance between adequately protecting trade secrets and adequately marketing a product.\u00a0 The leak represents a double-edged sword of consumer interest for companies attempting to protect their trade secrets.\u00a0 The seriousness of the leak depends on how much information was released.\u00a0 If the entire specifications of a new phone or OS were released, then another manufacturer could illegally produce Blackberry\u2019s product.\u00a0 Patent and trade secret laws are in place in the US to protect companies from the effects of others inappropriately gaining access to their proprietary information.
\nOn the other hand, high levels of consumer interest and curiosity drum up conversations about the next Blackberry on tech blogs and other websites.\u00a0 The leak could encourage technologically savvy consumers to purchase the real product when Blackberry releases it.\u00a0 Some tech bloggers have criticized Blackberry for cracking down on a leaker who drummed up more consumer traffic for Blackberry, claiming that the leaker was \u201ca natural part of the gadget and mobile device ecosystem, and an expression of genuine interest from people who might actually want to purchase [the] products.\u201d <\/a>
\nAccording to Chen, this leak is an instance of \u201ccuriosity turn[ing] to criminality.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0 For Blackberry\u2019s CEO and Blackberry\u2019s attorneys, the leak has clearly crossed the line from adequate publicity into trade secret infringement.\u00a0 However, some consumer blogs are predicting that the leak includes only images of the new operating system and some users who have tried it.\u00a0 Users who have tried the new OS have raved about it on the internet; some bloggers argue that Blackberry \u201ccouldn\u2019t ask for a better cheerleader for the brand.\u201d <\/a>\u00a0Chen stated that Blackberry will release less blogs and information about upcoming products, which may \u201cha[ve] no downsides for anyone but BlackBerry itself.\u201d<\/a>
\nBlackberry\u2019s legal strategy to adamantly protect its interests is demonstrated in other high-profile lawsuits in which the company is involved.\u00a0 The company recently wrapped up a judgment against its vice president in charge of software, Sebastian Marineau.\u00a0 An Ontario, Canada court ruled that Blackberry is entitled to costs for Mr. Marineau violating his contract<\/a> when he decided to accept a position at Apple.\u00a0 Blackberry appears to be taking a conservative view of its company in regards to its legal dealings (attempting to retain talent and retain trade secrets as opposed to embracing natural turnover and embracing the modern advertising benefits of online leaks).\u00a0 It remains to be seen whether this legal strategy will yield higher stock prices for the company.
\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a March 26, 2014 blog post, Blackberry CEO John Chen addressed the issue of recent leaks to a forthcoming edition of the Blackberry Smartphone.\u00a0 Chen announced to Blackberry customers and the general public that the company is \u201cpursuing legal action\u201d against a party who allegedly illegally obtained the information and made it public. \u00a0While …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[51],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2697"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2697"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2697\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7478,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2697\/revisions\/7478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}