But You Didn’t Know About It So You Shouldn’t Disclose It….

An issue that we have dealt with over the years is whether information disclosed in a published patent application can be claimed as a trade secret. The argument is that although the information is in the public domain, the receiving party would never have found it. The Fifth Circuit recently addressed this issue. Read a good discussion of the case.  It is not surprising that the Court concluded that information contained in a published patent application was not protectable as a trade secret under Texas law. However, there is a lesson here. Companies should make sure that their NDAs contain carve outs for any information that is ultimately disclosed to the public by the disclosing party. This way, it will make it harder for the disclosing party to claim that something that it disclosed to the world in its patent application is somehow a trade secret.  Further, they should conduct their own investigation by searching the USPTO’s website for any relevant, published patent applications/patents owned by the disclosing party and should get representations from the disclosing party that the information, which is being disclosed, has not already been publicly disseminated and is not the subject of a patent application.