Trade Secrets Do Not Need to Be in Writing

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Legal Pad, pen and law book5. Trade Secrets do Not Need to be in Writing

Trade secrets need not be in writing. (Morlife, Inc, 56 Cal.App.4th at 1522 (“to afford protection to the employer, the information need not be in writing but may be in the employee’s memory”); Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. v. A10 Networks, Inc., 873 F.Supp.2d 1192, 1215 (N.D. Cal. June 12, 2012) (“It is this combination of elements that makes the information valuable and not generally known to the public. Moreover, the mere fact that the information is not in a written list is not dispositive of sufficient particularity.”) Here, many trade secret Defendants attempt to make much of the fact that some of the information in contention was in the Defendant’s “head.” However, as cited above, this is not dispositive and, at best, raises an issue of material fact as to what exactly was in the Defendant’s head and what combination of facts, whether in his head or not, fall under the Trade Secret claim.

What if the information is “generally known,” can that still be a trade secret? The next post will cover this question.

Eric Papp, Esq. 

Visit us at: www.ca-nvlaw.com

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