U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
The Fifth Circuit affirmed dismissal of a trade secret misappropriation lawsuit filed by a dissolved Louisiana LLC, holding that under FRCP 17(b)(3) the relevant law is the state where suit is filed—Texas—and Texas law does not allow dissolved entities to bring new claims.
The Fifth Circuit revived a trade secret RICO claim, holding that the systematic acquisition of trade secrets—not merely their ongoing use—can satisfy RICO’s ‘pattern of racketeering activity’ requirement, potentially enabling treble damages and attorney fees for trade secret owners whose secrets were stolen in a pattern of competitive IP raids.
The Fifth Circuit affirmed that a golf-cart seller’s “TROJAN-EV” mark infringed Trojan Battery’s famous TROJAN trademark and upheld $4.7 million in disgorgement, but vacated a permanent injunction as overbroad for covering products outside the golf industry.
The Fifth Circuit held that U.S. statutory copyright termination and renewal recapture worldwide rights, not just U.S. territorial rights — breaking with decades of consensus and creating a circuit-level fault line in international copyright law.