Last month, a tech giant (IBM) sued one of its former executives
who went to work for another tech giant (Microsoft), alleging that
she breached her non-compete agreement and misappropriated trade
secrets. Given the parties involved, you probably assume that the
trade secrets at issue were source codes or algorithms. In fact,
they were IBM's diversity initiatives, strategies,
and data.
In IBM v. McIntyre, IBM alleged that its former chief
diversity officer, Lindsay-Rae McIntyre, misappropriated IBM's
trade secrets by accepting an offer to hold the same title at
Microsoft. IBM's chief concern with McIntyre's new
employment concerned her "first-hand knowledge of IBM's
confidential strategies, secret diversity representation data,
proprietary technologies, and recruitment, retention, and
promotions plans for diverse talent." According to IBM, such
information would inevitably help Microsoft to compete against IBM
for the "same diverse talent" that McIntyre
