978-0078023859 Case11_1

subject Type Homework Help
subject Pages 2
subject Words 663
subject Authors Daniel Cahoy, Marisa Pagnattaro

Unlock document.

This document is partially blurred.
Unlock all pages and 1 million more documents.
Get Access
page-pf1
Case 11.1
AL MINOR & ASSOCIATES, INC. V. MARTIN
Supreme Court of Ohio
117 Ohio St.3d 58; 881 N.E.2d 850; 2008 Ohio LEXIS 240 [February 6, 2008]
FACTS:
AMA is an actuarial firm that designs and administers retirement plan and employees “pension
analysts” to work with approximately 500 clients.
Al Minor, Jr., founded AMA in 1983 and serves as its president and sole shareholder. He developed
AMA’s clientele, for which the firm maintains a confidential list.
In 1998, AMA hired Martin as a pension analyst, but did not require him to sign an employment
contract or a noncompetition agreement.
In 2002, while still employed by AMA, Martin organized his own company, Martin Consultants,
L.L.C., with the purpose of providing the same type of service as AMA.
Martin successfully solicited 15 AMA clients using information from his memory.
AMA filed suit for monetary and injunctive relief, claiming that Martin violated Ohio’s Trade Secrets
Act by using confidential information to solicit those clients.
PROCEDURE: The trial court denied equitable relief, but awarded the employer damages, and the
Court of Appeals affirmed.
ISSUE: Whether customer lists complied by former employees strictly from memory can be the basis
for a statutory trade secret violation?
RULE: “The authorities are quite uniform that disclosures of trade secrets by an employee secured by
him in the course of confidential employment will be restrained by the process of injunction, and in
numerous instances attempt to use for himself or for a new employer information relative to the trade
or business in which he had been engaged, such as lists of customers regarded as confidential, have
been restrained.”
REASONING:
1. The Uniform Trade Secrets Act (UTSA) suggests that for purposes of trade secret protection, the
General Assembly did not intend to distinguish between some tangible form and information that
which it is stored whether on paper, in a computer, in one’s memory, or in any other medium.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
page-pf2
A trade secret is defined as: “Information, including the whole or any portion or phase of any
scientific or technical information, design, process, procedure, formula, pattern, compilation,
program, device, method, technique, or improvement, or any business information or plans,
financial information, or listing of names, addresses, or telephone numbers that satisfies both of
the following: (1) It derives independent economic value, actual or potential, from not being
generally known to, and not being readily ascertainable by proper means by, other persons who

Trusted by Thousands of
Students

Here are what students say about us.

Copyright ©2022 All rights reserved. | CoursePaper is not sponsored or endorsed by any college or university.