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Intellectual Property Keyed to Merges
Winston Research Corp. v. 3M Corp
Facts
Mincom (Plaintiff) developed an improved precision tape recorder and reproducer. Within fourteen months of Johnson and Tobias leaving Mincom (Plaintiff), and forming Winston Research Corp. (Defendant), Defendant developed a similar machine. Plaintiff alleged that the Defendant machine was developed by Mincom’s former employees, including Johnson and Tobias, by using confidential information that they had acquired while working on the Plaintiff’s machine. Plaintiff brought suit in federal district court for damages and an injunction. The district court found that Johnson and the other former Plaintiff employees based Defendant’s development program upon the same approach to solving the problem posed by prior versions of the recorder as they had pursued in developing the Plaintiff machine. The district court further found that this general approach was not a trade secret of Plaintiff. Finally, the district court found that the particular embodiment of these general concepts in the Plaintiff machine was Plaintiff’s trade secret, and had been improperly utilized by the former employees of Plaintiff in developing the Defendant machine. The district court enjoined Defendant, Johnson, and Tobias from disclosing or using Mincom’s (Plaintiff) trade secrets in any manner for the duration of two years from the date of judgment, but denied damages. Both sides appealed, and the court of appeals granted review.
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