Blog : Trade Secret Litigation

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 […]

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, __ S.W.3d __, No. 14-23-00183-CV, 2024 WL 333798 (Tex. App.—Houston [14th Dist.] Jan. 30, 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 […]

The Texas Supreme Court’s HouseCanary opinion addresses motions to seal in trade secrets cases.

Like the 2017 remix of Sgt. Pepper, redoing my classic paper on the essentials of Texas trade secrets law was a challenge.

If an employee acquires–but does not use or disclose–an employer’s trade secret, can the employer still sue for “misappropriation”?

Does misappropriation of trade secrets create a presumption of irreparable injury in Texas?

How do you submit “misappropriation” to the jury in a Texas trade secrets trial?

What does it take to adequately plead a claim for misappropriation of trade secrets? Or to get one dismissed?

A recent case offers lessons on how to get (or avoid) a trade secrets injunction in Texas.

The right question is not “should Texas follow the inevitable disclosure doctrine?” but rather “what evidence is sufficient to establish imminent harm from the threatened use of trade secrets?”