Articles Posted in Trade Secrets

The federal Defend Trade Secrets Act, at 18 U.S.C. sections 1829(3) and (5), broadly defines trade secret misappropriation to include cases of improper use, disclosure, or acquisition of a trade secret. Under the federal trade secret statute, at 18 U.S.C. section 1839(3)(B), states that trade secret information “derives [its] independent economic value, actual or potential,…

Sometimes litigants are asked to disclose trade secret information during the course of a lawsuit. These litigants usually object claiming the privilege of trade secret. See, e.g., Fla. Stat. § 90.506 (“A person has a privilege to refuse to disclose, and to prevent other persons from disclosing, a trade secret owned by that person if…

Proving the existence of a trade secret in a court of law is no easy feat. The trade secret’s proponent has the burden of establishing the specific information he or she seeks to protect. Am. Red Cross v. Palm Beach Blood Bank, Inc., 143 F.3d 1407 (11th Cir. 1998) (“In a trade secret action, the…

Under Florida law, a trade secret means information not commonly known by or available to the public, which derives economic value from not being generally known to or ascertainable by proper means by others who can obtain economic value from the information, and that was subject to reasonable efforts to maintain its secrecy. Florida’s trade…

Federal courts distinguish between “direct” and “indirect” claims of trade secret misappropriation. The United States District Court for the Northern District of California, in Heller v. Cepia, L.L.C., 2012 WL 13572 (N.D. Cal. Jan. 4, 2012), explained that the difference depends on whether a plaintiff alleges the defendant obtained the trade secrets directly from the…

A trade secret plaintiff may have to divulge its claimed trade secret with reasonable particularity to the defendant before engaging in discovery because a growing number of courts require trade secret plaintiffs to do so. This rule places the plaintiff in a “Catch-22.” See DeRubeis v. Witten Techs., Inc., 244 F.R.D. 676 (N.D. Ga. 2007)…

Some employers have confronted the situation where employees have taken corporate trade secrets to use in competition against their former employer, but the employees had not signed a non-compete agreement. Under Florida law, however, the fact that the former employees did not sign a non-compete agreement is not dispositive concerning whether the business may enforce…

Florida law has a statutory privilege concerning disclosure of trade secrets in a lawsuit. Florida Statutes Section 90.506 states in pertinent part: “A person has a privilege to refuse to disclose, and to prevent other persons from disclosing, a trade secret owned by that person if the allowance of the privilege will not conceal fraud…

Florida’s non-compete statute, Section 542.335, Florida Statutes, accords broad protection in favor of a business seeking to prevent former employees from competing with the business via goodwill with customers with whom the former employee dealt during his employment. In this regard, section 542.335(1)(b)(3) expressly considers a “legitimate business interest” to include “[s]ubstantial relationships with specific…

The plaintiff in a trade secret misappropriation case must prove it has a trade secret and the defendant misappropriated the trade secret. Humphreys & Associates, Inc. v. Cressman, 2015 WL 12698428 (C.D. Cal. Aug. 31, 2015) (“To succeed on a claim of trade secret misappropriation, the plaintiff must establish that (1) the plaintiff owned a…