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by Bjartr
1324 days ago
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A customer list can absolutely be reasonably considered to be information with actual and potential value from not being generally known to other persons (competitors) who would obtain economic value from it's disclosure. So long as you make a reasonable effort to keep it from being public knowledge, it meets the criteria you quoted. |
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In most court cases I’ve seen about this, it isn’t enough to keep it from being public.
It has to be protected from employees to the degree necessary to keep it a secret. It’s why all the song and dance around the ‘secret ingredients’ in KFC/Pepsi/Coke ‘secret recipes’ (that and marketing). If it was common knowledge at the company, even if it wasn’t public knowledge, they couldn’t use the trade secrets acts to prosecute offenders.
If everyone at the company knows who is on the customer list, including folks who don’t have a privileged need to know it, it isn’t a secret. It just isn’t public knowledge. That still means it isn’t eligible for trade secret protection.
So while yes, it’s possible - if they do that - it’s not at all common with how the information is protected in my experience, and it would be very difficult to actually prosecute anyone under the trade secrets laws because of it.
Civil lawsuit? Different burden of proof, different calculus. Tort law is about being compensated for a loss or injury, after all, and there is no requirement that such loss or injury have been from a criminal act.