Plaintiff Must Identify Trade Secrets During Discovery: NY State Court | Practical Law

Plaintiff Must Identify Trade Secrets During Discovery: NY State Court | Practical Law

Recently, a New York state court ruled that plaintiffs who claim trade secret misappropriation must identify the trade secrets during discovery. While federal courts in New York state have held that plaintiffs must identify the allegedly misappropriated trade secrets, there is relatively little state case law on the issue. Implicit in the decision is the court's holding that it is not enough, in the case of software source code, to merely identify the portions of the code that are not trade secrets.

Plaintiff Must Identify Trade Secrets During Discovery: NY State Court

Practical Law Legal Update 2-519-2012 (Approx. 3 pages)

Plaintiff Must Identify Trade Secrets During Discovery: NY State Court

by PLC Intellectual Property & Technology and PLC Labor & Employment
Published on 27 Apr 2012USA (National/Federal)
Recently, a New York state court ruled that plaintiffs who claim trade secret misappropriation must identify the trade secrets during discovery. While federal courts in New York state have held that plaintiffs must identify the allegedly misappropriated trade secrets, there is relatively little state case law on the issue. Implicit in the decision is the court's holding that it is not enough, in the case of software source code, to merely identify the portions of the code that are not trade secrets.
Plaintiffs who claim trade secret misappropriation must identify the trade secrets during discovery, a New York state court ruled in a decision dated April 20, 2012. In MSCI Inc. v. Jacob, the plaintiffs alleged that MSCI's former employee Philip Jacob and his new employer, Axioma, Inc., misappropriated MSCI's software source code. The defendants objected to the court's previous ruling, which allowed MSCI to identify only the source code portions that were not trade secrets.
Agreeing with the defendants, the court ordered the plaintiffs to identify with reasonable particularity the allegedly misappropriated trade secrets, reasoning that the plaintiffs bear the burden of proving their allegations. Citing Southern District of New York case law, the court further pointed out that until a plaintiff specifies the alleged trade secrets, neither the court nor the defendant can know whether discovery is relevant.