Trade Secrets and Competition

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One of the key pieces of evidence a plaintiff in a trade secret case usually looks for is the downloading of company information from its computers prior to a former employee departing and joining a competitor.  Generally, this “smoking gun” type of evidence shows that the employee on his or her last day accesses and…

Under California law, non-compete provisions with an employee are generally unenforceable.  Statutory exceptions to this rule include the seller of a business’s goodwill or a membership interest in an LLC.  Courts have also recognized a judicial exception to this rule: where the non-compete is necessary to protect an employer’s trade secret information.  This judicial exception…

Sometimes a defendant accused of trade secret misappropriation can defend on the basis that it has “reversed engineered” the alleged trade secret information and therefore did not misappropriate it.  For instance, a defendant may be able to establish that it examined plaintiff’s product and then using its own know-how, time, energy and independent resources was…

Readers of this blog know that we frequently discuss the doctrine of preemption under the California Uniform Trade Secrets Information Act.  That is, a claim for trade secret misappropriation will preempt any other common law claims based on the “same nucleus of facts.”  However, a recent decision in Jobscience, Inc. v CVPartners, Inc., N.D.…

An employee of a Bay Areas executive recruiting firm who left to start his own firm was sentenced to one year in prison after being found guilty of trade secret theft and unauthorized computer access crimes.  David Nosal was a former managing director at Korn/Ferry International and left in 2004 to start his own firm. …