TikTok Partly Defeats Trade Secrets, Copyright Lawsuit—For Now

TikTok Inc. won partial dismissal of copyright infringement and trade secret claims brought by a company that alleged an ex-employee took its source code before leaving to work at the short-video social-media company.

Beijing Meishe Network Technology Co. Ltd. sufficiently alleged TikTok induced users to infringe its copyrighted software covering video- and audio-editing technology, but failed to adequately specify what unregistered intellectual property TikTok directly copied, the US District Court for the Northern District of California said in a mixed decision published Tuesday. The court found Meishe’s trade secrets claims related to software code sufficiently pleaded but dismissed others falling ...