Take 20,000 documents? Strap in for a lawsuit.

You got an employee, and that employee downloads 20,000 of your documents and then quits? You’re probably gonna want to investigate that. Maybe you’ll even want to sue for trade secret theft.

This happened to Rockwell Collins, and that’s what it did. 

The Rockwell Collins case is interesting because it involves claims under both the Defend Trade Secrets Act and the California Uniform Trade Secrets Act. So if there’s any differences between the two laws, this case will explore them.

Right now, the court’s exploring them on the former employee's motion to dismiss the case. And the court finds at least one difference between the two laws. The California Uniform Trade Secrets Act has a particularity requirement—discovery can’t begin until the plaintiff discloses the misappropriated trade secrets with reasonable particularity.

The Defend Trade Secrets Act doesn’t.

A lot of times, defendants try to use CUTSA’s particularity requirement to lower the bar for motions to dismiss. There’s varying degrees of success here. But for this court, it’s a hard no.

Motion to dismiss denied. On to discovery.