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Trade Secrets: What Happens When Sending Secrets by E-mail

In Ideal Aerosmith Inc. v. Acutronic USA, Inc., 87 U.S.P.Q. 2d 1341, the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania found that a valid claim of trade secret misappropriation had been plead and denied a motion to dismiss where the defendant allegedly received the trade secrets through misdirected emails. The defendant allegedly read the emails and used the trade secret information to compete against plaintiff.

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When discovered, Ideal sued Acutronic for trade secret misappropriation
under the Pennsylvania Uniform Trade Secrets Act (PUTSA). Acutronic
moved to dismiss the trade secret claim on the basis that it had not
acquired the trade secrets though any misconduct on its part and
therefore there was no misappropriation of those trade secrets. The
court found that under the PUTSA, misconduct is not required. Rather,
the court found that any use or disclosure of information that
Acutronic knew or had reason to know was a trade secret without consent of the owner of the trade secret can be a violation of PUTSA.

Thus, the message from this case is recipient beware. Receipt of misdirected email of another that arguably contains confidential business
information should be treated very carefully to avoid possible
liability. Such emails should be forwarded to the correct recipient if
that address is known, and the sender should be informed of error by
reply email so that the error can be avoided in the future. Any use or
disclosure of any possible confidential information contained in such a
misdirected email should be avoided as it could subject mistaken
recipient to liability for trade secret misappropriation.

For those thinking this Indiana and the case took place in Pennsylvania, think again. Indiana adopted the Uniform Trade Secrets Act just as did Pennsylvania. This decision does not control in Indiana but I expect it be very persuasive.

Full post as published by Indiana Civil & Business Lawyer on November 09, 2008 (boomark / email).