Privacy, Business and Law

The California Supreme Court recently ordered depublication of the case Electro Optical Industries, Inc. v. White, 76 Cal. App. 4th 653 (1999). The California Court of Appeal had adopted the inevitable disclosure doctrine in this case, concluding that an employer may enjoin a former employee from working for a direct competitor where the new employment would inevitably lead the employee to rely on the former employer’s trade secrets.

In the case, the California Court of Appeal affirmed the lower court’s denial of a preliminary injunction in favor of the employee in the case, a former sales manager of an infrared device supplier, who left his employer to work for a direct competitor. In its opinion, the court recognized the “inevitable disclosure” doctrine in its preliminary injunction analysis, but stating that the company could not prevail because it was unable to demonstrate that the former employer would inevitably disclose trade secrets in his subsequent employment.

While companies may still raise the “inevitable disclosure” doctrine against former employees in connection with protecting trade secrets, after the depublication of the Electro Optical Industries case, there exists no California case expressly adopting this doctrine.