Unique Combinations of Known Components Can be Trade Secrets

A trade secret “is one of the most elusive and difficult concepts in the law to define.” Tewari De-Ox Systems, Inc. v. Mountain States/Rosen, L.L.C., 637 F.3d 604, 613-14 (5th Cir. 2011). In Tewari, the trial court ruled that the plaintiff did not have any trade secrets because the specifics of its claimed secret process had already been publically disclosed or were know in the industry. The Fifth Circuit, however, disagreed and ruled that whether plaintiff’s process was a trade secret was a question for the fact finder to decide. In many cases, the question of whether certain information constitutes a trade secret ordinarily is best “resolved by a fact finder after full presentation of evidence from each side. . . . A trade secret can exist in a combination of characteristics and components each of which, by itself, is in the public domain, but the unified process, design and operation of which in unique combination, affords a competitive advantage and is a protectible secret." Tewari De-Ox Systems, Inc. v. Mountain States/Rosen, L.L.C., 637 F.3d 604, 613-14 (5th Cir. 2011)(citations omitted).