10.07.2015 Views

ALI-ABA Topical Courses Trade Secrets From the ... - ALI CLE

ALI-ABA Topical Courses Trade Secrets From the ... - ALI CLE

ALI-ABA Topical Courses Trade Secrets From the ... - ALI CLE

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

70point, <strong>the</strong> Court opined that <strong>the</strong> focus of Air Products was on<strong>the</strong> employee’s “engineering background and <strong>the</strong> specialknowledge he possessed relating to a method of oil recoverynot yet developed by <strong>the</strong> competitor company,” despite <strong>the</strong>circumstance that <strong>the</strong> employee, like Finney, was involved insales. Id. at 1327.In Iron Age Corp. v. Dvorak, both <strong>the</strong> trial court and<strong>the</strong> Superior Court refused to enjoin a former district salesmanager of a footwear manufacturer from using or contactingany of <strong>the</strong> company’s current or prospective customers. 880A.2d 567. The employee, Dvorak, had left <strong>the</strong> company, IronAge, to work for a competitor. Id. at 661. The SuperiorCourt affirmed <strong>the</strong> denial of <strong>the</strong> requested injunction because<strong>the</strong> trial court reasonably concluded that <strong>the</strong> information atissue—Iron Age’s customer lists—was “available tocompetitors through legitimate means and cannot be declareda trade secret.” Id. at 664. The Court went on to distinguishAir Products on <strong>the</strong> ground that:In Air Products, <strong>the</strong> employee possessedintimate knowledge of his former employer’sresearch and development data for on-site gasdelivery technologies. The employee’s newemployer was attempting to develop similartechnologies, and <strong>the</strong> employee was hired toprovide research and development data obtainedthrough his previous employment. In <strong>the</strong> instantcase, [Dvorak] possesses no such technicalknowledge, and [his] new employer already hasan extensive customer base. [Dvorak] was not23

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!