Blog : Trade Secret Litigation

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?”

Check out this updated version of our popular “Trade Secrets 101” memo.

It’s Franken-steen First let’s get something out of the way. The Texas Citizens Participation Act (TCPA) is a Frankenstein’s monster that the legislature created and now needs to reign in (not that they listen to me). As I explained in a three-part series back in the summer of 2017, the TCPA grants defendants in certain cases the unusual right to require the plaintiff to prove its case before taking any discovery. In litigator jargon, it effectively lets the defendant file a “no-evidence” motion for summary judgment without first requiring an adequate time for discovery. The statute was intended to curtail […]

If every customer list was a trade secret, that would impose a de facto non-compete on every sales person. But not every customer list is a trade secret.

If Apple sues Xpeng Motors for misappropriation of trade secrets, the opening statements may look like this . . .

Price undercutting is a common theory in trade secrets litigation. But are prices really trade secrets? Find out the legal standard and some common factual scenarios.

The sad saga of the Flaubert orphans and their attempts to require identification of trade secrets in litigation

What if I told you that to understand an employee’s confidentiality duties, you need to understand there are three kinds of confidential information covered by at least four different areas of law? You see, employers have three kinds of confidential information: Trade secrets Confidential information that is not a trade secret “Confidential” information that is not actually confidential A trade secret is confidential information that has “independent economic value” and is “not readily ascertainable” by competitors. Secret technology, secret business plans, the literal secret sauce—these are obvious trade secrets. Less obvious things like customer lists and company prices can be […]