Trade Secret Litigation: When Secrets Must Be Identified

Courts across the country will continue grappling with the question of exactly how and when trade secret plaintiffs should be required to identify the very information they are suing to protect, says Paul Keller, a partner in Crowell & Moring's Patents Group.

The nature of trade secrets has always presented this tension when it comes to litigation. A trade secret holder who is claiming misappropriation must at some point—and to some extent—identify the secret that they believe the defendant has misappropriated. In general, trade secret plaintiffs have sought to define their trade secret in more general terms, especially at the outset of litigation, while defendants have pushed for more specificity to enable them to mount a defense.