State Trade Secret Law Protects Software Object Code

• Publication year: 1993
• Pages: 1258

22 Colo.Law. 1258 Colorado Lawyer 1993.

1993, June, Pg. 1258. State Trade Secret Law Protects Software Object Code

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1258

Vol. 22, No. 6, Pg. 1258

State Trade Secret Law Protects Software Object Code

by Gayle L. Kersting, an associate with Rothgerber Appel, Powers & Johnson

The Court of Appeals for North Carolina has affirmed a trial court's grant of a preliminary injunction protecting a software-driven lumber processing system [Barr-Mullin, Inc. v. Browning, 424 S.E. 2d 226 (N.C.App. 1993)]. The COMPU-RIP software existed in the form of "programmable read-only memory chips" ("PROMS") that contained the object code version of the program and were embedded in the COMPU-RIP machinery.

Defendant Browning assisted in development of the program and customer installation of the systems. After Browning resigned from the corporation, he started a competitor company and began developing a lumber optimization system similar to that of the corporation.

The court determined that because COMPU-RIP was sold in PROM form, and the source code for the program was not available to the general public, the software met the trade secret definition requiring that it was subject to "reasonable efforts to maintain its secrecy." In addition, the court held that the trade secret was not "readily ascertainable through reverse engineering," as expert testimony indicated that it was practically impossible to make...