The Inevitable Disclosure Doctrine-Importance for The Protection of Trade Secrets

The inevitable disclosure doctrine is a way for an employer to prevent a former employee from working for a competitor under the principle that the employee would inevitably disclose their former employer’s trade secrets. The doctrine works under the idea that once a trade secret is disclosed, it cannot be regained. Thus, if allowing a former employee to work for a competitor makes a disclosure is inevitable, an employer should be able to prevent it from happening.

Naturally the doctrine was applied only to employees in technical fields, but courts have expanded it to include employees in possession of a variety of trade secrets, including financial, manufacturing, production and marketing information.

Importance of this doctrine is that there is no need to be evidence that the employee will disclose the "Trade Secret Information." If the employee has no intention of betraying their former employer, the knowledge they have gained from their former employment will naturally give a new employer access to trade secrets.

The seminal inevitable disclosure case is PepsiCo, Inc. v. Redmond. In PepsiCo, Inc. v. Redmond (7th Cir. 1995) 54 F.3d 1262, PepsiCo sought to enjoin its former employee, William Redmond, from working for a competitor, the Quaker Oats Company. PepsiCo and Quaker Oats were fierce competitors, particularly in "sports drinks" and "new age drinks." The Seventh Circuit then agreed with the district court finding that "unless Redmond possessed an uncanny ability to compartmentalize information, he would necessarily be making decisions about Quaker Oats' products by relying on his knowledge of PepsiCo's trade secrets." (Ibid.) Such inevitability of disclosure, coupled with Redmond's and Quaker Oats' "lack of candor on their part and proof of their willingness to misuse PepsiCo's trade secrets," led the Seventh Circuit to affirm the injunction barring Redmond from working for Quaker Oats.

https://www.lawpipe.com/U.S.-Federal-Courts/PepsiCo_Inc_v_Redmond.html

https://www.weil.com/~/media/files/pdfs/inevitable_disclosure

https://ipo.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/DoctrineofInevitableDisclosure.pdf