PUBP 4640: Trade Secrets

Trade Secret

Information not generally known, confers economic benefit, and subject to reasonable efforts to maintain secrecy.

Trade Secret Protection

Measures like confidentiality agreements, access restrictions, and periodic audits to safeguard trade secrets.

Negative Know-How

Early versions or failed attempts in product development, like the initial versions of WD-40 or 'blind alleys' in software development.

Reasonable Efforts

Steps taken to maintain the secrecy of a trade secret, such as written policies, employee agreements, and data retention policies.

Misappropriation

Unauthorized use or disclosure of a trade secret, which can lead to legal action for theft.

Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA)

U.S. federal law allowing trade secret owners to sue in federal court for misappropriation, providing remedies like injunctive relief and compensatory damages.

Uniform Trade Secrets Act

Model legislation for state laws prohibiting theft or disclosure of trade secrets, with criminal penalties and civil remedies.

EU Directive on Trade Secrets

Directive for protecting undisclosed know-how and business information as trade secrets within the EU, harmonizing national laws.

Trade Secret Theft

Can lead to legal action for theft or misappropriation, with the possibility of losing protection if someone else independently comes up with the secret.

Extraterritorial Reach of DTSA

Allows legal action for acts inside or outside the U.S. by U.S. citizens, resident aliens, or organizations, with remedies like injunctive relief and compensatory damages.

Motorola v. Hytera Case

Example of DTSA's extraterritorial reach, where Motorola sought damages for Hytera's worldwide sales of products developed using stolen trade secrets.

Defense to Misappropriation

Legal protection for individuals who independently discover a trade secret without using illegal means or violating agreements.

DTSA

Defense of Trade Secrets Act; applies to conduct outside the US if an act in furtherance of the offense was committed in the US.

Hytera

Company found to have advertised, promoted, and marketed products embodying trade secrets domestically at trade shows.

Misappropriation Defense

Exception for people who independently discover trade secrets without using illegal means or violating agreements, such as NDAs.

Patent vs. Trade Secret

Analyzing lawfully obtained products for trade secrets is not a violation of trade secret law, unlike patent coverage.

Foreign Espionage

Foreign governments take extreme measures, including intercepting communications and using spies, to acquire US firms' strategic and technological secrets.

Levandowski

Former Uber engineer charged with 33 counts of trade-secret theft and involved in multiple legal cases related to the theft.

Levandowski Defense

Resigned from Google, started own company allegedly with stolen technology, and was subsequently acquired by Uber.

Levandowski Civil Case

Settled in 2019 after a trial, leading to a payment to Waymo and a recommendation for criminal investigation.

Levandowski Unfair Competition

Found guilty of breaching employment contract, ordered to pay a fine, and declared bankruptcy.

Levandowski Criminal Case

Charged with 33 counts of theft, pleaded guilty, agreed to restitution, fine, and an 18-month prison sentence.

FBI Statement

The FBI condemns trade secret theft, emphasizing its impact on the economy, jobs, and consumers, and stating that theft is not innovation.

Coca-Cola Case

Involving a former executive assistant sentenced for conspiring to steal trade secrets and trying to sell them to a rival company.

Special Employment Agreements

Agreements preventing employees from taking competing jobs for a specified period or within a specified region, with controversy and legal limitations.

Noncompete Legislation

Recent laws in various states, such as Washington D.C., Oregon, Illinois, and Nevada, addressing the permissible duration and scope of noncompete agreements.

Inevitable Disclosure Doctrine

Allows companies to prevent former employees from working for a competitor if employment will inevitably lead to trade secret disclosure, with varying acceptance among states.

Inevitable Disclosure Doctrine in Georgia

Georgia Supreme Court's rejection of inevitable disclosure as a stand-alone claim, requiring more than inevitability for an injunction.

Unsolicited Ideas

Companies reject unsolicited ideas and return them, often accompanied by a waiver stating no confidentiality applies, protecting only patented ideas.