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Employee who misappropriates trade secrets from former employer's computer system for competitive gain not liable under CFAA, absent showing of "damage" or "impairment" to data or computer system

Thelen Reid Brown Raysman & Steiner An employee who misappropriates trade secrets from his former employer's computer system is not liable under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), absent a showing of "damage" or "impairment" to the database or computer system. Garelli Wong & Assoc. v. Nichols, No. 07-6227, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3288 (N.D. Ill. Jan. 16, 2008). The district court dismissed the plaintiff's CFAA claims based upon a failure to properly allege damage to its computer system, and declined to exercise jurisdiction over the plaintiff's remaining state law claims. The court held that misappropriation of a trade secret through the use of a computer alone does not, without more, constitute "damage" under the CFAA (i.e., "impairment to the integrity or availability of data, a program, a system, or information"). The court concluded that the defendant's unauthorized acts of copying and e-mailing proprietary computer files neither impaired the integrity of the plaintiff's database nor caused any interruption in service. Opinion http://www.thelen.com/tlu/GarelliWongVNichols.pdf

Full post as published by The Trade Secrets Vault on March 13, 2008 (boomark / email).