Trade Secret Litigation to Increase in 2008?

So suggests this blurb from Employment Law360 (subscription required):

As parts of the United States economy started to trend downward at the end of 2007 and the beginning of this year, intellectual property attorneys began to gear up in anticipation of more work heading their way.

According to experts, an economic downturn usually creates more intellectual property legal work, including noncompetition agreements, nondisclosure agreements and trade secret litigation.

Makes sense as intellectual property becomes relatively more valuable to its owner.

Perhaps the increase in cases will lead to us seeing some new legal analyses in this area of employment law.  For one thing, I am still curious to see how the debate comes out over whether it makes a difference to the enforceability of a noncompetition agreement whether an employee voluntarily resigns or is fired from employment.

PS