Pleading Your Case Without Giving Away the Store: Surviving a Motion to Dismiss in Trade Secret Cases

The useful part

Trade secret plaintiffs routinely face a paradox at the pleading stage: describe your secrets with enough particularity to survive a motion to dismiss, but without revealing the very information you are trying to protect. The lawsuit alleged that before leaving, those employees downloaded thousands of O9 files containing confidential business information and trade secrets. As experienced trade secret litigators know, these are two of the most common and effective arguments defendants raise at the pleading stage.

How it works

• 2024), Magistrate Judge David Horan confirmed that a plaintiff need not provide a specific description of the allegedly misappropriated trade secret to survive dismissal.
• Rather, it is sufficient to claim that at least some aspects of the information at issue constitute a trade secret.

Details worth keeping

Employees, Downloads, and a Competitor O9 Solutions, Inc., an artificial intelligence software company, filed suit in the Northern District of Texas alleging that three former senior employees—the Chief Revenue Officer and two colleagues—left for competitor SAP. O9 asserted claims for misappropriation of trade secrets under both the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA) and the Texas Uniform Trade Secrets Act (TUTSA), as well as breach of confidentiality and stock option agreements, and tortious interference with contractual relations.