Abstract
Courts have traditionally not required plaintiffs to describe trade secrets in any detail in a trade secret misappropriation action. However, the Supreme Court’s 2009 decision in Iqbal v. Twombly, which introduced the concept of “plausibility pleading,” has begun, haltingly, to change that. Some courts, but not all, now require a plaintiff to identify the alleged misappropriated secret. This Essay argues that Iqbal did, in fact, change the law in this area and that trade secret misappropriation actions now require that the secret’s identity be included in the pleading. Some courts are starting to agree, although unevenly so. This Essay tracks the court cases for and against more exacting pleading standards in trade secret cases. In doing so, this Essay argues that plausibly pleading trade secret misappropriation requires identifying the secret that has been misappropriated.
Recommended Citation
J. Jonas Anderson,
Pleading Secrets,
91 Mo. L. Rev.
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Available at: https://scholarship.law.missouri.edu/mlr/vol91/iss3/7