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The inevitable-disclosure doctrine is a legal theory that says if an employee who knows a company's trade secrets goes to work for a competitor, they will inevitably use that knowledge to compete unfairly. To stop this from happening, the former employer can ask for an injunction to prevent the employee from working for the competitor. However, many courts have rejected this doctrine because it turns a nondisclosure agreement into a noncompetition agreement. The leading case that supports this doctrine is PepsiCo, Inc. v. Redmond, where the court compared the situation to a coach whose player left with the playbook to join the opposing team before a big game.
The inevitable-disclosure doctrine is a legal theory that applies to trade secrets. It states that if a key employee leaves a company and joins a competitor, they cannot avoid using the former employer's trade secrets. This is because the employee has confidential information that they will inevitably use to unfairly compete against their former employer.
To obtain an injunction, the plaintiff must prove that the former employee has confidential information and will not be able to avoid using that knowledge to unfairly compete against the plaintiff. However, most courts have rejected this doctrine because it effectively turns a nondisclosure agreement into a disfavored noncompetition agreement.
For example, in the case of PepsiCo, Inc. v. Redmond, the court upheld the inevitable-disclosure doctrine. PepsiCo found itself in the position of a coach, one of whose players has left, playbook in hand, to join the opposing team before the big game. The court ruled that Redmond, the former employee, had access to confidential information that he would inevitably use to compete against PepsiCo.
Another example is a software engineer who leaves a tech company and joins a competitor. If the engineer has access to the former employer's trade secrets, they may inevitably use that knowledge to develop similar products for the competitor, which would be unfair competition.
inevitable-accident doctrine | inevitable-misappropriation doctrine