8-6 JURY INSTRUCTIONS

• Jurisdiction: United States

8-6 Jury Instructions

One area of dispute that often arises in a trade secret trial involves the jury charge. Although the Texas pattern jury charge sets the framework for the legal principles submitted to the jury, the plaintiff and defendant will often differ in the level of detail with which the trade secret is defined in the charge and the number of questions the jury needs to answer on the trade secret claim. The defendant will often want the charge to instruct the jury as narrowly as possible about whether information at issue in the case is a trade secret. Some defendants will even try to break down the charge into categories of information, asking the jury to identify, one by one, which of the alleged categories actually qualifies as trade secrets.¹⁰ Defendants will also often try to break the trade secret liability questions into several parts, thus providing separate opportunities for the jury to go their way. For example, some defendants will seek to have separate questions on whether a trade secret existed and whether it was misappropriated.¹¹ Some defendants have even pressed for a separate jury question on the use or disclosure of that trade secret in addition to a question on the trade secret's misappropriation and existence.

By contrast, trade secret plaintiffs will want to include as broad a definition as possible (if any definition at all) about the potential trade secret information in the case. Often plaintiffs will seek a jury instruction that does not limit the information at issue in any way, but simply asks the jury to find whether a trade secret existed. Plaintiffs will also want to try...