Trade Secret Report

• Jurisdiction: United States,Federal,California
• Author: Conor Tucker
• Citation: Vol. 48 No. 3
• Publication year: 2023

TRADE SECRET REPORT

Conor Tucker

Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati

DTSA | Independent Economic Value & Expert Testimony

Synopsys Inc. v. Risk Based Security Inc., — F.4th —, 2023 WL 4009505 (4th Cir. Jun 15, 2023).

The Fourth Circuit affirmed summary judgment of no trade secret misappropriation because plaintiff had failed to come forward with sufficient evidence that its seventy-five trade secrets derived independent economic value tied to secrecy. Plaintiff failed to prove either value or that the value derived from the secrecy. Regarding value, plaintiff relied upon acquisition price and that 90% of its revenue came from licensing a product that incorporated the trade secrets. But "a fatal disconnect exists between the evidence RBS relied on and its burden of proof because that evidence does not reflect that the alleged trade secrets had value nor prove that any such value derived from their secrecy." The acquired company and the product were not, themselves, the trade secrets—and their value "cannot substitute for evidence about the seventy-five alleged trade secrets' value." Regarding deriving value from secrecy, the evidence put forward "does noting to establish that the asserted value associated with the seventy-five alleged trade secrets derives from their 'not being generally known' or 'readily...