Injunctive Relief Agreement For Trade Secret Misappropriation In Santa Clara
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When an employer suspects criminal conduct, it may decide to contact law enforcement to investigate and prosecute trade secret theft, in addition to or instead of sending one or more cease and desist letters. Misappropriating trade secrets is a crime under various federal laws and under California law.
Anyone who steals trade secrets, or receives stolen trade secrets knowing that they were unlawfully obtained, can be punished by a maximum of 10 years in federal prison plus fines.
Like most states, California has adopted the Uniform Trade Secrets Act (UTSA). The law allows owners of trade secrets to pursue legal action and recover damages for unauthorized disclosure, misappropriation, and theft of trade secrets.
Defenses to a Misappropriation Lawsuit You will need to use your own files and records to prove that you completed development before any dates on which the alleged misappropriation occurred. Related, but less strong, is a defense of reverse engineering.
Liability can arise when one party unlawfully acquires, uses, or discloses another party's trade secrets, resulting in harm or damages. There are no express criminal remedies available for misappropriation of a trade secret.
A court may grant an injunction to prevent any actual or threatened misappropriation, provided that the injunction does not “prevent a person from entering into an employment relationship,” and that any conditions placed on employment are based on “evidence of threatened misappropriation and not merely on the ...
The plaintiff in a trade-secret case lawsuit must prove three facts: (1) it has some valuable business information that it has kept secret; (2) the information is not generally known; and (3) the defendant has used that secret. A defendant may attack each showing, but some attacks are better than others.
Under TUTSA and DTSA, a plaintiff who successfully proves trade secret misappropriation can obtain several types of remedies, including injunctive relief, monetary damages, and, in certain cases, punitive damages.
If you are accused of misappropriating trade secrets, your best defense in many states is actual independent development. Independently developing information from one's own pool of knowledge or the public domain is a complete defense to a company's claim of trade secret misappropriation.
