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ARTICLE · 30 AUGUST 2018

Banking On Standard Operating Protocols As Trade Secrets

Orrick
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In a testament to the wide breadth of potential trade secret protection to any number of industries, a court in the Western District of Washington denied a 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss Seattle Sperm Bank's (SSB) DTSA and Washington Uniform Trade Secrets Act claims against its prior employees who set up a competing company, Cryobank America.

United StatesIntellectual Property
Denise Mingrone
Denise Mingrone
Johanna Jacob
Johanna Jacob
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In a testament to the wide breadth of potential trade secret protection to any number of industries, a court in the Western District of Washington denied a 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss Seattle Sperm Bank's (SSB) DTSA and Washington Uniform Trade Secrets Act claims against its prior employees who set up a competing company, Cryobank America.  Among other things, SSB alleged that in the months leading up to their departure, the employees copied 10 folders, including 67 Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and 149 forms, to a portable hard-drive that they took with them upon their departure from SSB.

Defendants attacked SSB's trade secrets claims on two fronts, neither of which the court found persuasive:

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