Much like the album’s name, the story of its making is the stuff of legend. The Wu-Tang Clan recorded their seventh studio album, “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin,” in secret over six years in New York and Morocco. The hip-hop group and their producers created only one copy of the album, consisting of a double-album pressed CD featuring 31 tracks and including a leather-bound lyric book and a gold-leafed certificate of authenticity, all enclosed in a hand-carved silver box. The masters were intentionally destroyed so the album could not be duplicated. Why? All to make the point that, in a time when music is often devalued upon release due to instant streaming and general non-exclusivity, it can also and should warrant the same value as fine art if treated as such, including as a solitary and exclusive collector’s item without the ability to make a reproduction.
The only copy of “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin” was purchased in 2015 by “PharmaBro” Martin Shkreli for $2 million, making it the most expensive work of music ever sold. A legal agreement with the purchaser stipulated that the owner of the album could not use it for commercial profit until 2103.
But Shkreli didn’t hang on to the album for long. In 2017, he was convicted of securities fraud, and his assets, including the album, were seized. Shkreli went to prison. The U.S. Department of Justice sold the album in 2021 to WTC Endeavors Limited for $2,238,482.30. PleasrDAO, a self-described group of collectors of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) focused on acquiring culturally significant digital art, purchased the album in two separate transactions in 2021 and 2024 for $4.75 million. In a Rolling Stone interview, a spokesperson for PleasrDAO stated that the purchase was the “ultimate protest against middlemen and rent seekers of musicians and artists,” and that Shkreli was “the ultimate internet villain.”
Fast-forward to June 9, 2024: Shkreli, who was released from prison in 2022, allegedly livestreamed portions of the album to the public on X, and a lawsuit by PleasrDAO soon followed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
According to PleasrDAO’s Complaint, “[d]uring the [June 9, 2024] Spaces session, Shkreli played music from the Album that any participant could hear. According to X, 4.9 thousand listeners ‘tuned in.’” PleasrDOA asserted claims against Shkreli under the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act on the grounds that the album was a trade secret that Shkreli had misappropriated, as well as common law claims of misappropriation of confidential information and trade secrets.
On June 11, 2024, United States District Judge Pamela Chen issued a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) against Shkreli, finding that PleasrDAO was likely to succeed on the merits of its claims against Shkreli for his violation of the Defend Trades Secret Act and misappropriation of PleasrDAO’s trade secrets, and ordered Shkreli from “using, disseminating, streaming, or selling any interests in the Album, including its data and files; or in any way causing further damage to Plaintiff respecting the Album,” among other relief.
In August 2024, Judge Chen issued a Preliminary Injunction against Shkreli “enjoining him from possessing, using, disseminating, or selling any interests in the Album, including its data and files, or in any way causing further damage to Plaintiff respecting the Album through this conduct; (2) ordering him to provide an inventory and accounting of the copies of the Album that he has retained and the individuals to whom he has distributed the data and files, and any attendant revenue; and (3) ordering him to turn over to his counsel all recordings of the Album’s contents that Defendant possesses or controls.”
Shkreli’s attorneys filed a Motion to Dismiss, arguing that the album cannot be considered a “trade secret” as a matter of law. Judge Chen disagreed, and in her order issued on September 25, 2025, she concluded that “whether the Album, and the information contained therein, is a trade secret is a question of fact” for the jury, and that given “the unique facts of this case, the Court finds that Plaintiff has adequately pleaded a ‘trade secret’ under the DTSA and New York law.” Judge Chen’s ruling is significant because trade‑secret law traditionally covers things like customer lists, technical data, and product formulas, not a one‑of‑a‑kind, exclusive music album.
According to Berman Fink Van Horn (BFV) shareholder Benjamin Fink, who has litigated numerous high-stakes trade secret cases for over 30 years, “Judge Chen’s ruling is remarkable for a number of reasons. Affording trade secret protection to musical works appears to be an unprecedented extension of this form of intellectual property protection.”
Will the jury ultimately conclude in the PleasrDAO case that trade secret law should protect an exclusive, one-of-a-kind music asset? Time will tell, but in the meantime, Judge Chen’s ruling has shifted the boundaries of what courts have typically considered to be protectable trade secrets into new territory.
Benjamin Fink is a BFV attorney focusing on trade secret, restrictive covenant, and other high-stakes complex business litigation matters. Cher Gregoire is a BFV attorney focusing on trade secret, restrictive covenant, and trademark infringement litigation as well as brand protection. Please contact them if you want legal assistance in these areas.
Cher Gregoire is a BFV attorney focusing on trade secret, restrictive covenant, and trademark infringement litigation as well as brand protection.
