UnIntellectual Property (UnIP): Trade Secret for Software
The United States District Court for the Northern District of California has once again taught trade secret plaintiffs a hard lesson. The Court granted Defendant’s motion to strike Plaintiff’s trade secret misappropriation cause of action for failure to identify the trade secret, which was alleged to be recruiting software, with reasonable particularity.
In doing so, the Court analyzed the California Civil Code, namely Section 2019.210:
Defendant provided a three-page narrative and three barely-legible schematics. No explanation was provided for the schematics other than to say a “representation of Jobscience’s proprietary process and efficient solution is reflected in the following schematic diagram and screen shot examples.” Having previously been warned, twice, by the Court that failure to provide additional identification or face dismissal, the Court finally dismissed the claim, without leave to amend.
This may sound harsh, but given the factual nature of trade secret misappropriation claims, especially when it comes to software, it aids in more efficient litigation. Interestingly here, Plaintiff still may be able to satisfy its copyright infringement claim, but we shall see given that the remainder of this Opinion discusses issues concerning expert analysis.