We are blogging on “Non-competes, Trade Secrets, Fiduciary Duties, and the Inevitable Disclosure Doctrine.” Mark Oberti has prepared a detailed paper on all of these issues, which can be found here.
No Texas case expressly adopts the inevitable disclosure doctrine. Cardinal Health Staffing Network, Inc., 106 S.W.3d at 242 (“We have found no Texas case expressly adopting the inevitable disclosure doctrine . . . .”). The court in Cardinal Health Staffing Network, Inc. refused to apply the doctrine based on the particular facts of the case, which showed the plaintiff’s ex-employee was perfectly capable of performing his job with his new employer without using his ex-employer’s trade secrets or confidential information. Likewise, in M-I, L.L.C. v. Stelly, Slip Copy, Civil Action No. H-09-CV-01552, 2009 WL 2355498, at *7 (S.D. Tex. July 30, 2009), U.S. District Judge Gray H. Miller declined to apply the inevitable disclosure doctrine based on the Cardinal Health Staffing Network, Inc. case, and the fact that the “[p]laintiff has similarly failed to show that Stelly and Squyres took any confidential information with them or that they are using such information at Wellbore; the Court will therefore not apply the inevitable disclosure doctrine.” Id.
Stay tuned to future posts on this issue:
