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In First Western Capital Management Co. v. Malamed, Case Nos. 16-1434, 16-1465 & 16-1502 (10th Cir. Oct. 30, 2017), the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals held that a district court erred in issuing a preliminary injunction to a party under federal and state trade secret law where the court presumed that the party would be irreparably harmed absent the injunction.

Ordinarily, in order to obtain a preliminary injunction, a moving party needs to establish, among other things, that it will suffer irreparable harm if the injunction is denied. This requires the party to show that there is a significant…
Continue Reading Tenth Circuit Holds That Irreparable Harm Cannot Be Presumed for Trade Secret Injunction

A recent decision from the Northern District of California, Magic Leap, Inc. v. Bradski et. al., shows that employers must meet a high standard when filing a California Code of Civil Procedure Section 2019.210 disclosure statement under the California Uniform Trade Secrets Act (“CUTSA”). See California Civil Code § 3426 et seq. The disclosure statement, which does not have a counterpart in the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act, requires a plaintiff to “identify the trade secret with reasonable particularity” before it can conduct discovery of the defendants’ evidence. See California Code of Civil Procedure § 2019.210. The sufficiency of…
Continue Reading Judge Orders Magic Leap to Be More Precise in Describing the Trade Secrets Former Executive Allegedly Stole

In Angelica Textile Services v. Park, the California Court of Appeal recently addressed the issue of whether a victim of trade secret misappropriation pursuing a CUTSA claim may also pursue other business torts such as breach of the duty of loyalty or conversion against the wrongdoer and found, in a novel way, that CUTSA did not displace a state law claim for conversion of trade secrets.
Continue Reading California Court of Appeal Revisits CUTSA “Preemption” of Other Tort Claims

California Courts have discretion to award attorneys’ fees to a prevailing defendant in a trade secrets action where the commencement or continued prosecution of a trade secrets action is in bad faith. A recent decision underscores that a plaintiff pursuing a trade secret claim in California must be careful that it can actually identify with some particularity what trade secrets have been misappropriated.
Continue Reading Failure To Define Trade Secrets Establishes Subjective Bad Faith For Attorneys’ Fees Award Under CUTSA