Never Tell Tales out of School (or secret recipes from work)
One of America’s most closely guarded secrets sits in an undisclosed location in Louisville, locked away in a safe. Very few people know its location, let alone the information contained in that vault. The select few who do know are obligated to strict confidentiality by contract. The information contained therein are not military codes or emergency instructions. It’s Colonel Harland Sanders’ secret formula for his Kentucky Fried Chicken.
A recent Law.com post reported the case of Bimbo Bakeries USA Inc. v. Botticella. Mr. Botticella was one of a handful of executives who knew the secret “nooks and crannies” formula for Thomas’ English Muffins. Botticella had surreptitiously accepted a position at rival Hostess. Bimbo Bakeries (the company that makes the muffins) successfully sought an injunction to block Botticella from joining Hostess and possibly exposing their trade secrets.
In our practice, we frequently get asked about non-compete and non-disclosure agreements. Often a client will ask: Why me? Some employees can’t believe that they acquired any knowledge so critical to their employer that it justifies stringent intellectual property restrictions . Well the answer is: There are plenty of things can be highly confidential and proprietary, even the nooks and crannies of a muffin or the recipe for the coating on fried chicken. More commonly, the concern is about customer lists, unique methodologies or technical information.
Frank Steinberg of the New Jersey Employment Law Blog explains inevitable disclosure as a doctrine of trade secret law that proceeds from the premise that an ex-employee of one company who knows trade secrets, and takes a job with a competitor, simply will not will not be able to keep his mouth shut in his new job.
Dan Schwartz of the Connecticut Employment Blog commented on the muffin case with both humor and insight. He notes that the judge concluded, in the case of Mr. Botticella, that the disclosure of trade secrets would be inevitable. Dan suggests that employers who seek to use the doctrine of “inevitable disclosure” should realize the limits of the doctrine, and use it carefully and sparingly.
All these gentlemen should be on the lookout for Todd Wilbur. The former journalist has a website and series of success books called “Top Secret Recipes: creating original clone recipes of America’s Favorite Foods.” We don’t know whether he found out the true secrets or did some “reverse engineering” in order to get close. Can you tell?
photo courtesy Wikimedia
