Practice Expertise

  • Trade Secrets & Employee Mobility
  • Intellectual Property Law
  • Litigation
  • Labor & Employment

Areas of Practice

  • Intellectual Property Law
  • Labor & Employment
  • Litigation
  • Trade Secrets & Employee Mobility
  • Privacy & Data Security Law
  • View More

Profile

For 28 years, Mr. Wiseman has practiced exclusively in the fields of trade secrets, unfair competition, and employee mobility. Mr.  Wiseman is the Co-Chair of Buchalter’s Trade Secret and Employee Mobility Practice Group.

Since 2021, Dylan has been recognized by the Daily Journal, California’s legal industry newspaper, as among the Top Trade Secrets Lawyers in California. He is nationally recognized by London-based IAM (Intellectual Asset Management) for trade secret litigation. In 2023, IAM tapped Mr. Wiseman as its exclusive commentator on trade secrets law for the United States.

Mr. Wiseman represents businesses, on both the plaintiff and defense side in disputes involving:

  • Trade secrets
  • Unfair competition
  • Employee mobility and en masse departures
  • Antitrust claims
  • Disputes involving customer non-solicitation restrictions

He also counsels employers and start-ups regarding best practices for intellectual property.

Mr. Wiseman’s diverse group of clients include:

  • Insurance brokerages
  • Venture capital, private equity, and investment banking firms
  • Aerospace companies
  • Mortgage banking firms
  • Biomedical device companies
  • Inventors
  • Professional service firms
  • Life sciences companies
  • Renewable and sustainable energy companies
  • Casinos
  • Healthcare companies
  • Sporting goods companies
  • Media outlets
  • Commercial banks

Mr. Wiseman has extensive jury trial experience. He has been lead trial counsel in several complex designated unfair competition jury trials, including an eight-week jury trial. Mr. Wiseman also has substantial first-chair experience in complex arbitrations.

Because of his trial experience, the California Lawyers Association asked Mr. Wiseman to be the sole author of the chapter on jury instructions in the treatise Trade Secret Litigation & Protection: A Practice Guide to the DTSA and CUTSA (4th Ed. 2021). Mr. Wiseman’s chapter provides a comprehensive critique of the CACI 4400 series jury instructions used for trade secret claims.

Similarly recognizing Mr. Wiseman’s two decades of trade secrets trial verdicts, he is a co-author of the Template Civil Jury Instructions Under the Defend Trade Secrets Act, which was published in 2021 in the Intellectual Property & Technology Law Journal. In 2023, Mr. Wiseman joined The Sedona Conference – Working Group 12 (Trade Secrets), which is developing a set of pattern jury instructions for the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act.

Appearing in state and federal courts, Mr. Wiseman has extensive experience litigating disputes under:

  • The Uniform Trade Secrets Act
  • The Defend Trade Secrets Act
  • The Sherman Antitrust Act
  • The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act
  • California’s Unfair Competition Law, Business and Professions Code, section 17200
  • California’s Business & Professions Code sections 16600 and 16601
  • California’s intellectual property assignment provisions
  • California Penal Code section 502
  • California’s employee duty loyalty provisions

On multiple occasions, Mr. Wiseman has taught continuing education seminars regarding trade secrets and unfair competition litigation for the State Bar of California’s Labor and Employment Law Section. An award-winning lecturer, he has also taught continuing legal education seminars regarding intellectual property protection, social media and confidentiality, computer forensics, and eDiscovery.

In 2017, Mr. Wiseman opened the Sacramento office after working for a year to plan, organize, and recruit the other Sacramento attorneys. The Sacramento office now has over 40 resident lawyers.

Prior to joining Buchalter, Mr. Wiseman was a Shareholder for ten years at Littler Mendelson, the world’s largest labor and employment law firm.

Bar Admissions

  • California

Education

  • University of California, Davis
  • Santa Clara University School of Law

Areas of Practice

  • Intellectual Property Law
  • Labor & Employment
  • Litigation
  • Trade Secrets & Employee Mobility
  • Privacy & Data Security Law

Professional Career

Significant Accomplishments
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>Representative Litigation</strong></span></p><p><strong>Biomed devices.</strong> Represented company against competitor in trade secret and predatory hiring dispute in which half the national sales force left in one day.</p><p><strong>DNA sequencing.</strong> Obtained partial dismissal after plaintiff ailed to identify trade secrets with reasonable particularity. Affirmed on appeal with by the Ninth Circuit.</p><p><strong>Minimally invasive surgical devices.</strong> Represented startup and inventor in dispute over intellectual property assignment terms for post-termination inventions.</p><p><strong>Biotherapeutics.</strong> Advised biotherapeutics firm on best practices to avoid trade secret misappropriation.</p><p><strong>Medical equipment servicing.</strong> Represented regional client against multi-national competitor who claimed it had misappropriated trade secrets.</p><p><strong>Medical staffing.</strong> Represented healthcare company in anti-trust dispute to enforce surgical contracts with joint venturer who sought to end staffing for program.</p><p><strong>Healthcare.</strong> Represented company against competitor in trade secret and predatory hiring dispute.</p><p><strong>Aerospace.</strong> Represented competitors in hard-fought trade secrets dispute, and obtained favorable resolution for defendants.</p><p><strong>Clean energy.</strong> Obtained injunction on behalf of thermal transference firm after two scientists downloaded files and brought them to a competitor.</p><p><strong>Ag-Tech.</strong> Represented defendants and counter-claimants who hired employees from a competitor that were accused of trade secret misappropriation.</p><p><strong>Fin-Tech.</strong> Represented firm which claimed its investment algorithms were coped by a former employee.</p><p><strong>Custom machining.</strong> Represented firm which had two employees leave and allegedly brought costing and pricing data to a direct competitor.</p><p><strong>Sporting equipment.</strong> Represented custom racing ski firm against competitor who allegedly took its designs. Obtained preliminary injunction.</p><p><strong>HVAC servicing.</strong> Represented former owner of business accused of violating restrictive covenants incident to the sale of the business.</p><p><strong>Tactical gear.</strong> Represented company which claimed its supplier and design information were misappropriated when employee joined competitor.</p><p><strong>Fashion.</strong> Represented jeans company which alleged that a former employee downloaded its future designs and left for a competitor.</p><p><strong>Elevators.</strong> Represented company in multi-jurisdictional fight over covenants not to compete for senior executives.</p><p><strong>Casinos.</strong> Obtained preliminary injunction against management company for casino who hired a host that allegedly misappropriated list of high-end customers.</p><p><strong>Digital analytics and advertising.</strong> Represented start-up accused of exploiting trade secrets and obtained.</p><p><strong>Digital and print media.</strong> Represented firm following the sale of business accused of trade secret misappropriation.</p><p><strong>Subscription services.</strong> Represented data management firm which claimed a competitor had hacked its security measures to gain access to subscribers.</p><p><strong>Mortgage lending.</strong> Represented mortgage lending firm which hired an employee from competitor and was accused of loading files to cloud-based storage.</p><p><strong>Commercial banking.</strong> Represented bank which had several employees leave and allegedly took client information to a competitor.</p><p><strong>Independent insurance agencies.</strong> Represented multiple local, national and global insurance brokerages and agencies in disputes involving producers leaving and soliciting customers. Extensive injunction and trial practice.</p><p><strong>Commercial insurance.</strong> Represented numerous local and national insurance brokerages and agencies in disputes involving producers leaving and soliciting customers. Extensive injunction and trial practice.</p>



Articles

  • How US employers can adapt to FTC ban on non-compete agreements
  • Pivot, Don’t Panic: How Employers Should Respond to the FTC’s Ban on Non-Compete Agreements
  • Trade secrets – policy and latest developments
  • Badges of Bad Faith in Trade Secret Litigation
  • Trade Secret Litigation and Protection: A Practice Guide to the DTSA and CUTSA
  • Template Civil Jury Instructions Under the Defend Trade Secrets Act
  • California Employers Should Modify the Definition of ‘Confidential Information’ to Avoid Operating as a Covenant Not to Compete
  • California Supreme Court Clarifies Bounds of Legitimate Competition Under Tort and Antitrust Law
  • California Supreme Court to Rule on Non-Competes Between Businesses and Interference Claims
  • Republic FC’s Major League Soccer Expansion: What Does It Really Mean for Sacramento?
  • California Plaintiffs May Prefer State Court For Trade Secret Claims
  • A Patent For A Formula Does Not Destroy Trade Secret Status So Long As The Patent Does Not Disclose The “Process” For Applying The Trade Secret
  • High Court Expands Protection on ‘Confidential’ Information Under Exemption 4 of FOIA
  • California, Washington and Oregon agree UTSA applies to memory
  • Viewpoint: A Road Map to Hiring Employees from Direct Competitors in California
  • An Introduction to California Trade Secrets Law
  • A Recent Ruling About the “Willful and Malicious” Standard for Plaintiff’s Recovering Attorneys’ Fees Under the California Uniform Trade Secrets Act
  • Fees for bad faith in DTSA lawsuit
  • Employee Nonsolicitation Terms Now Likely Void In California
  • Nine Ways to Upgrade Calif. Employee Confidentiality Agreement
  • Biz Smarts: The legal hazards of your new sales hire’s old customer relationships
  • Steps Every Startup Should Take to Protect its Intellectual Property
  • 10 Ways to Improve Your Company’s Odds in a Trade Secret Litigation Dispute
  • Winds of Change: the NLRB Challenges Confidentiality Agreements and The Obama Administration’s “Call to Action” to Prohibit Non-Compete Agreements
  • New Labor Code Section Prevents Employers from Using Out-of-State Choice of Laws Provisions in Contracts with California Employees
  • Anti-Money Laundering and Bank Secrecy Act: Are You in Compliance?
  • Protecting Confidential Information and Trade Secrets in a Tech Accelerator or Incubator
  • Trade Secrets Cases Center on Cloud
  • Dylan Wiseman Urges Employers to Use Highly Sophisticated Data Security Solutions

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