In my earlier posts, I discussed the developing standards for injunctive relief under the Texas Uniform Trade Secret Act (TUTSA). Under the Northern District of Texas’s analysis, proof of irreparable harm is required but that irreparable harm can be established with a showing that the “defendant possesses the trade secrets and is in a position to use them.”
Continue Reading Corpus Christi Court of Appeals Applies the Irreparable Injury Standard for Trade Secret Injunction
On March 8, 2017, the Texas Fourth Court of Appeals issued its memorandum opinion in Hughes v. Age Industries, No. 04-16-00693, 2017 WL 943423 (Tex. App—San Antonio 2017, no pet. h.). Hughes involves the familiar fact pattern of a key employee leaving his employer to work for a competing business. In addressing the employee’s argument that the employer failed to prove the existence of trade secret, the Court stated that “[i]n the temporary injunction context, a trial court does not decide whether the information sought to be protected is a trade secret; rather it determines whether the applicant has established the information is entitled to trade secret protection until a trial on the merits.” This is an interesting comment because the Texas Uniform Trade Secret Act (TUTSA) makes no mention of this lesser standard in its language. Rather, the Court relied on outdated common law case law as the basis for its statement. The effect of the Court’s statement is to establish a possibly easier standard for establishing a plaintiff’s temporary injunction although I am not clear as to the difference between “trade secret” and “information . . . entitled to trade secret protection until a trial on the merits.”
Continue Reading Fourth Court of Appeals Issues Opinion that (Sort of) Interprets the Texas Uniform Trade Secret Act in the Injunction Context