The Federal Circuit's Evolving View of Trade Secrets

Bryan Wilson, Mary Prendergast and Chiamaka Okoye wrote an article entitled "The Federal Circuit's Evolving View of Trade Secrets" for Law360 that discusses recent developments in the Federal Circuit's approach to two key issues in trade secret litigation: the "readily ascertainable" standard and the sufficiency of trade secret identification. The article explains that the Federal Circuit may be moving towards a broader interpretation of "readily ascertainable," considering not only what defendants actually did, but also what they could have done to obtain the information, potentially aligning the standard more closely with patent law's "obviousness" analysis. It also highlights the Federal Circuit's increasingly strict requirements for plaintiffs to define their trade secrets with specificity, noting that courts may revisit and scrutinize trade secret definitions at summary judgment or post-trial. These trends suggest that plaintiffs may face a higher bar in the Federal Circuit than in other courts, making careful trade secret identification and definition crucial for litigants.

Read the full article.