From the course: Understanding Intellectual Property (2014)

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Defenses and remedies to trade secret infringement

Defenses and remedies to trade secret infringement

From the course: Understanding Intellectual Property (2014)

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Defenses and remedies to trade secret infringement

So let's say you get sued for misappropriation of trade secrets. What are the defenses to that? Well, there's the defense that you didn't disclose it, of course. There's the defense that you reverse engineered. You didn't actually get the information inappropriately. You took something that you could get in the market and you reverse engineered software or hardware or some other information without breaching a duty of confidentiality. You can prove that you learned the information from someone who didn't have the duty of confidentiality. So even if you have a duty under a non-disclosure agreement to keep something secret, if you find that the information is publicly disclosed, someone who has no duty has disclosed that information, you are relieved of your obligations of confidentiality, in most cases. The idea is that it's no longer a trade secret if, even though you had an obligation in the first instance to maintain the secrecy, someone else no longer does. It loses its status as a…

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