

Judge Protects Secret Muffin Recipe by Barring Employee Hire - grellas
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202443728649&src=EMC-Email&et=editorial&bu=Law.com&pt=Law.com%20Newswire%20Update&cn=LAWCOM_NewswireUpdate_20100217&kw=Secret%20Muffin%20Recipe%20Prevents%20Executive%20From%20Switching%20Jobs

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grellas
This is a highly unusual trade secret case illustrating what _not_ to do as a
high-level executive about to switch jobs.

Bottom line: a _very rare_ result in which the executive was not just enjoined
from disclosing trade secrets but was barred outright from ever working at the
competitor's on any terms. Shows the extreme steps taken in and out of court
to preserve the secrecy of a highly valuable trade secret (in this case,
involving a muffin recipe), probably akin to what Coke does to protect its
proprietary soft drink formula.

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hga
Agreed, and add (the detail of):

" _Botticella also surreptitiously accessed highly sensitive documents on his
final day of work at Bimbo, Surrick found, and a computer expert showed that
an external drive had been connected to Botticella's laptop._ "

Although the reported basis is one I'm very uncomfortable with, the judge
saying the plaintiff's "burden was to show at least a 'substantial threat' of
disclosure of a trade secret". If Silicon Valley had been under such a regime
way back when, we wouldn't be having this discussion (well, we might ... on
300 baud modems...).

