In Brief: The producer of Silver Linings Playbook won’t see all of the backend.

The famous movie producer, Sam Goldwyn, is credited with saying that “An oral contract isn’t worth the paper it’s written on”. The son of Bob Ross, the Joy of Painting icon, found out that there’s an exception to this rule.

Trade secrets can be an asset in a divorce. %CUT% Donald Bailey and his ex-wife, Geraldine Bailey, were in the midst of a very messy divorce. As part of the proceedings, Geraldine wanted to determine the value of their marital assets. So Geraldine’s law firm sought discovery against Donald’s two companies, Zegato Solutions Inc. and Aldmyr Systems, Inc. The two companies had trade secrets that were worth about $350 million, according to Donald. Donald then brought a suit against the attorneys claiming that they stole and copied the trade secrets. Dismissal of the suit was affirmed by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. The Fourth Circuit agreed with the lower court that the law firm was entitled to explore Donald’s assets on behalf of Geraldine.

During the 2016 to 2017 term, the US Supreme Court was able to put in the final word on some disputed areas of the law. But in others, not so much. %CUT% Here’s a roundup:

When all else fails, file for Chapter 11. %CUT% ATopTech Inc., a software developer and Hampshire Group, Ltd., a menswear supplier, have some things in common. First, they both filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy to sell their assets. Second, Intellectual Property played a significant part in their cases. Their road to Chapter 11 was different, though. ATopTech lost a copyright action brought by Synopsys, Inc. and was facing a $30.4 million it had no hopes of paying. Hampshire Group owed $15 million to its creditors which included $7.4 million to its secured creditor, Salus Capital Partners. Hampshire Group’s primary assets are its trademarks.

The year 2016 had its share of notable people who got the attention of federal criminal authorities. Here are the winners. %CUT% As we enter awards season, we recognize those who put considerable time and effort into criminal activity involving Intellectual Property. The awards go to: