Anything Goes? TROs in Trade Secret Lawsuits

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Like my man Cole Porter said, in olden days a glimpse of stocking, was looked on as something shocking, now Heaven knows . . . anything goes. Especially when a company sues a former employee who took documents containing the company’s alleged “trade secrets.” In a case like that, can the company get a temporary restraining order (TRO) requiring the employee not to use the documents? Can the judge also make the employee immediately “return” the documents to the company? After handling cases like this for over a decade, I can tell you the practical answer is simple: in a […]

Common Deposition Mistakes in Trade Secrets Litigation

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The McLaughlin Group There was a sketch on Saturday Night Live where Dana Carvey played news talk show host John McLaughlin. The recurring gag was that McLaughlin would ask the guests a serious political question, each would give a thoughtful answer, and McLaughlin would shout “WRONG!” I think about that a lot when I’m doing deposition preparation with clients in trade secrets lawsuits. Let’s go over some common ways defendants in trade secrets lawsuits go wrong in their depositions. We’ll use our old hypothetical friend Dawn Davis as an example 1. Are the things defined as “confidential information” or “trade […]

Houston Court Reigns in Forensic Computer Exams in Trade Secrets Lawsuits

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Court Holds the Weekley Homes Standard Applies The Houston Court of Appeals (14th) has held that the plaintiff in a trade secrets lawsuit is not automatically entitled to a forensic examination of a defendant’s device that was allegedly used to take the defendant’s alleged trade secrets. In re 4X Industrial, LLC, 683 S.W.3d 916 (Tex. App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 2024) (orig. proceeding). Rather, to obtain an order for “direct access” to the defendant’s computer or electronic storage device, the plaintiff must satisfy the requirements established by the Texas Supreme Court in In re Weekley Homes, 295 S.W.3d 309 (Tex. 2009). Those […]