A battle that occurs in most theft of trade secrets lawsuits revolves around which side will first disclose its trade secrets in discovery. In Texas, the judge has discretion to set the order for this type of discovery. There is little authority from Texas state courts to guide the trial judge. However, several federal courts in Texas recently chose to require the plaintiff to specifically identify its trade secrets before permitting the plaintiff to conduct any discovery.
The case opinions are discussed at the end of this post. Before that, let’s look at why lawsuit plaintiffs and defendants care so much about this issue. Continue reading
