Doctrine Of Inevitable Disclosure

Executive Summary

The doctrine of inevitable disclosure, which has its source in trade secret law, holds that in rare circumstances an individual possesses such critical knowledge of a company's trade secrets he can be temporarily or even permanently banned from working in a specific job, because doing so would inevitably lead to disclosure of his former employer's trade secrets. The doctrine has been a source of controversy among courts and legal commentators, in part because of strong policy considerations on both sides of the debate, and in part because of inconsistent treatment by federal and state courts.

State law governs trade secrets, unlike most areas of intellectual property law, which are governed by federal statute. The vast majority of states—at last count, 46—have adopted laws based on the Uniform Trade Secrets Act (UTSA), which provides for injunctive relief in the event of "actual or threatened misappropriation" of trade secrets. The remaining