{"id":1603,"date":"2022-01-04T13:59:35","date_gmt":"2022-01-04T13:59:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/are-your-trade-secrets-safe-think-about-inevitable-disclosure\/"},"modified":"2022-08-04T19:21:41","modified_gmt":"2022-08-04T19:21:41","slug":"are-your-trade-secrets-safe-think-about-inevitable-disclosure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/are-your-trade-secrets-safe-think-about-inevitable-disclosure\/","title":{"rendered":"Are Your Trade Secrets Safe? Think about Inevitable Disclosure"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

The inevitable disclosure doctrine comes up frequently in trade secret cases. For example, the doctrine may be raised when an employee who gained access to plaintiff\u2019s trade secrets or other confidential or proprietary information that may qualify as a trade secret accepts employment with an employer in the same industry. This blog<\/a> previously discussed the Georgia Supreme Court\u2019s rejection of inevitable disclosure of trade secrets as a standalone claim under Georgia trade secret law.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

What is the inevitable disclosure doctrine?
<\/strong>Inevitable disclosure<\/a> is the principle that a former employee will inevitably disclose and use trade secrets of the former employer in the employee\u2019s role with the new employer. In other words, due to the nature of the knowledge acquired by the employee during his tenure with the former employer and the competitive nature of the new employer, it is inevitable<\/em><\/strong> that the employee will disclose and use the trade secret information in the employee\u2019s head while he\/she works for a competitor.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

What can be done to prevent inevitable disclosure?<\/strong>
A former employer who believes its trade secrets are at risk by an employee\u2019s departure may seek to obtain a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction<\/a> for immediate relief to prevent misappropriation of trade secrets. In these instances, the inevitable disclosure doctrine may provide a \u201cshortcut\u201d to proving each of the four elements required to obtain injunctive relief, including:
(1) substantial likelihood of success on the merits;
(2) imminent risk of irreparable injury;
(3) that the threatened injury outweighs the harm an injunction would impose on the defendant; and (4) that the injunction is not averse to public interest.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The inevitable disclosure doctrine exists for circumstances where the probability that an employee would reveal the former employer\u2019s trade secrets is high enough that the court may enjoin a former employee\u00a0 to prevent threatened misappropriation and ensure protection of trade secrets even if an actual disclosure has not yet occurred.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

How is the inevitable disclosure doctrine handled under the Defend Trade Secrets Act?
<\/strong>The Defend Trade Secrets Act<\/a> (\u201cDTSA\u201d) has acknowledged the doctrine of inevitable disclosure and permits a former employer to seek an injunction based on threatened <\/em><\/strong>as opposed to actual disclosure of trade secrets. However, federal courts look to the misconduct of the employee that shows the employee is likely to misappropriate information in deciding whether to rely on the doctrine of inevitable disclosure to enjoin that employee\u2019s employment.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia recently examined the doctrine of inevitable disclosure under the DTSA in the case of AWP, Inc. v. Henry, <\/em>1:20-cv-01625-SDG, 2020 WL 6876299, at *1 (N.D. Ga. Oct. 28, 2020).<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

AWP is a traffic safety company that provides traffic control equipment to customers in North America. AWP competes with Defendant L30 Consulting, LLC for business. Angela McNulty is the sole member of L30.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

In 2015, AWP entered an agreement to purchase a traffic safety company from Defendants Anita and Ed Henry. As part of the purchase, the Henrys agreed to five-year noncompetition and non-solicitation restrictive covenants.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

AWP alleged that during the term of those restrictive covenants, the Henrys, along with L30 and Ms. McNulty, acted to expand L30\u2019s business by recruiting AWP employees. AWP alleged that two employees recruited by L3 had access to AWP\u2019s trade secrets, including customer contacts, pricing information, pricing structures, and training procedures and policies. AWP also alleged that Ms. McNulty and L30 lured the employees to L30 for the purpose of obtaining access to AWP\u2019s trade secrets.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The Defendants argued that mere existence and possession of alleged trade secrets was insufficient if they had not actually used or disclosed the trade secrets. AWP relied on the inevitable disclosure doctrine, arguing that the employees had access to AWP\u2019s trade secrets and retained personal knowledge of the trade secrets after joining L30.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The Court\u2019s Findings
<\/strong>The Court found that AWP\u2019s allegations could show that the employees had knowledge of AWP\u2019s trade secrets at the time they went to work for L30. However, AWP failed to allege that the Defendants ever threatened to use or disclose the trade secrets, noting that \u201c[i]t is not enough for AWP to simply allege that [Ms.] McNulty and L30 hired two individuals who happen to possess knowledge of AWP\u2019s trade secrets\u201d and found AWP failed to state a claim for trade secret misappropriation. Id.<\/em> At *4.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The Court declined to extend the doctrine of inevitable disclosure to this case, relying upon the reasoning of the Georgia Supreme Court in Holton v. Physician Oncology Services, LP<\/em><\/a>. <\/em>In Holton, <\/em>the Georgia Supreme Court noted that the inevitable disclosure doctrine is still the subject of considerable disagreement and declined to decide whether a plaintiff can rely on the doctrine to state a claim for trade secret misappropriation. Holton v. Physician Oncology Servs., LP, <\/em>292 Ga. 864, 868 (2013). The United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia noted that other state and federal courts had not reached a clear consensus on the issue. Ultimately, the Court found that allowing AWP to state a claim based merely on its former employees\u2019 possession of trade secrets and AWP\u2019s speculation that they would use them would expand the DTSA and the Georgia Trade Secrets Act too drastically. AWP, Inc., <\/em>2020 WL 6876299, at *5.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The Court expressed concern that to hold otherwise would prevent employees from accepting employment with competitors in perpetuity. Id. <\/em>It appears that for the inevitable disclosure doctrine to be argued successfully, there must be some allegation that the employee in possession of trade secrets has engaged in or is prone to engage in some misconduct.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

It\u2019s important to ensure that your trade secrets are safe. As always, please let me know<\/a> if I can help.<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The inevitable disclosure doctrine comes up frequently in trade secret cases. For example, the doctrine may be raised when an employee who gained access to plaintiff\u2019s trade secrets or other confidential or proprietary information that may qualify as a trade secret accepts employment with an employer in the same industry. This blog previously discussed the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":13664,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_mo_disable_npp":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,9],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAre Your Trade Secrets Safe? Think about Inevitable Disclosure - Berman Fink Van Horn P.C.<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The inevitable disclosure doctrine comes up frequently in trade secret cases.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/are-your-trade-secrets-safe-think-about-inevitable-disclosure\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Are Your Trade Secrets Safe? Think about Inevitable Disclosure - Berman Fink Van Horn P.C.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The inevitable disclosure doctrine comes up frequently in trade secret cases.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/are-your-trade-secrets-safe-think-about-inevitable-disclosure\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Berman Fink Van Horn P.C.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-01-04T13:59:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-08-04T19:21:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Are-your-trade-secrets-safe_-Expect-delays.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"477\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"477\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Berman Fink Van Horn\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Berman Fink Van Horn\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/are-your-trade-secrets-safe-think-about-inevitable-disclosure\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/are-your-trade-secrets-safe-think-about-inevitable-disclosure\/\",\"name\":\"Are Your Trade Secrets Safe? Think about Inevitable Disclosure - Berman Fink Van Horn P.C.\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/are-your-trade-secrets-safe-think-about-inevitable-disclosure\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/are-your-trade-secrets-safe-think-about-inevitable-disclosure\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Are-your-trade-secrets-safe_-Expect-delays.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-01-04T13:59:35+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-08-04T19:21:41+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0d284d556606ade11404fcbd125efdb9\"},\"description\":\"The inevitable disclosure doctrine comes up frequently in trade secret cases.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/are-your-trade-secrets-safe-think-about-inevitable-disclosure\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/are-your-trade-secrets-safe-think-about-inevitable-disclosure\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/are-your-trade-secrets-safe-think-about-inevitable-disclosure\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Are-your-trade-secrets-safe_-Expect-delays.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Are-your-trade-secrets-safe_-Expect-delays.jpg\",\"width\":477,\"height\":477,\"caption\":\"Are your trade secrets safe_ Expect delays\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/are-your-trade-secrets-safe-think-about-inevitable-disclosure\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Are Your Trade Secrets Safe? Think about Inevitable Disclosure\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/\",\"name\":\"Berman Fink Van Horn P.C.\",\"description\":\"A Business Law Firm In Atlanta\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0d284d556606ade11404fcbd125efdb9\",\"name\":\"Berman Fink Van Horn\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/deb7805c35c49d2de3c1f64d329a518a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/deb7805c35c49d2de3c1f64d329a518a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Berman Fink Van Horn\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/author\/bfv\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Are Your Trade Secrets Safe? Think about Inevitable Disclosure - Berman Fink Van Horn P.C.","description":"The inevitable disclosure doctrine comes up frequently in trade secret cases.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/are-your-trade-secrets-safe-think-about-inevitable-disclosure\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Are Your Trade Secrets Safe? Think about Inevitable Disclosure - Berman Fink Van Horn P.C.","og_description":"The inevitable disclosure doctrine comes up frequently in trade secret cases.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/are-your-trade-secrets-safe-think-about-inevitable-disclosure\/","og_site_name":"Berman Fink Van Horn P.C.","article_published_time":"2022-01-04T13:59:35+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-08-04T19:21:41+00:00","og_image":[{"width":477,"height":477,"url":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Are-your-trade-secrets-safe_-Expect-delays.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Berman Fink Van Horn","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Berman Fink Van Horn","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/are-your-trade-secrets-safe-think-about-inevitable-disclosure\/","url":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/are-your-trade-secrets-safe-think-about-inevitable-disclosure\/","name":"Are Your Trade Secrets Safe? Think about Inevitable Disclosure - Berman Fink Van Horn P.C.","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/are-your-trade-secrets-safe-think-about-inevitable-disclosure\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/are-your-trade-secrets-safe-think-about-inevitable-disclosure\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Are-your-trade-secrets-safe_-Expect-delays.jpg","datePublished":"2022-01-04T13:59:35+00:00","dateModified":"2022-08-04T19:21:41+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0d284d556606ade11404fcbd125efdb9"},"description":"The inevitable disclosure doctrine comes up frequently in trade secret cases.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/are-your-trade-secrets-safe-think-about-inevitable-disclosure\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/are-your-trade-secrets-safe-think-about-inevitable-disclosure\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/are-your-trade-secrets-safe-think-about-inevitable-disclosure\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Are-your-trade-secrets-safe_-Expect-delays.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Are-your-trade-secrets-safe_-Expect-delays.jpg","width":477,"height":477,"caption":"Are your trade secrets safe_ Expect delays"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/are-your-trade-secrets-safe-think-about-inevitable-disclosure\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Are Your Trade Secrets Safe? Think about Inevitable Disclosure"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/","name":"Berman Fink Van Horn P.C.","description":"A Business Law Firm In Atlanta","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0d284d556606ade11404fcbd125efdb9","name":"Berman Fink Van Horn","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/deb7805c35c49d2de3c1f64d329a518a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/deb7805c35c49d2de3c1f64d329a518a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Berman Fink Van Horn"},"url":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/author\/bfv\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1603"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1603"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1603\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14175,"href":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1603\/revisions\/14175"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}