Update On Trade Secret Law

Extract

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Update On Trade Secret Law

I. Introduction

Despite the widespread adoption of the Uniform Trade Secrets

Act, trade secret principles continue to develop primarily

through the common law. It is this reliance on a few broadly

stated rules, whether from the Uniform Act or from the

Restatement (of Torts or, since 1995, of Unfair Competition),

that distinguishes trade secret law from the other three main

forms of intellectual property, each of which is based on a

federal statute. That reliance also reflects the policy

tension, present in most trade secret cases, between the need

to support investment in useful data and the need to respect an

individual's right to pursue his or her career. As the

information age continues to unfold, we can expect the stream

of case law to continue.

What follows is a sampler of developments during the last

year, with cases reported through February 2008. The cases

chosen are those which seem to provide useful clarification of

issues likely to come up repeatedly in the intellectual

property lawyer's caseload.

II. Uniform Act Preemption (or

"Displacement...

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