Law Firm Sued in Trade Secrets Case

From the National Law Journal, an interesting story about a trade secrets case against the Foley & Lardner law firm by SPH America, a Virginia company heavily involved in patent litigation.

The contention is that the law firm used information obtained in discovery in one case by incorporating it into another case. The suit, in addition to the trade secrets claims, apparently contends that a protective order was violated.

It’s hard to tell much about the facts from the case from the story, but our gut reaction is that trade secrets law should not reach a situation like this. Instead such matters are better left to the authority of the courts to police. In other words, if it violated a protective order, the remedies would be found in that context. Otherwise, no trade secrets claim would lie from information shared in the context of litigation and then used in later litigation.

I hope we can follow this to see where it leads.