California Court Suggests Trade Secret Owners Must Notify Good Faith Acquirers of Information of Trade Secret Misappropriation Claims

The recent California appellate decision, Cypress Semiconductor Corp. v. Superior Court, is instructive not just on the issue of when the statute of limitations begins to run in a trade secret matter, but also contains important language with respect to the obligations of the trade secret owner to notify good faith, third-party users of the alleged misappropriation of trade secrets.

In Cypress, Silvaco Data Systems had developed and licensed electronic design automation software (“EDA”). This software was used by Silvaco’s customers to design their own products. One of Silvaco’s EDA products was known as Smart Spice, and Silvaco maintained the source code for SmartSpice as a trade secret. In late 1998, a former Silvaco employee began working for Circuit Systems, Inc. (“CSI”) and incorporated the SmartSpice trade secrets into a CSI product known as DynaSpice. Silvaco first suspected the trade secrets misappropriation in 2000 and sued its former employee and CSI at that time. Silvaco did not directly notify or take any action against CSI customers who had licensed DynaSpice. In August 2003, Silvaco and CSI entered into a settlement agreement and a stipulated judgment. The judgment included an express finding that Silvaco’s trade secrets had been incorporated into DynaSpice. The judgment also required CSI to discontinue licensing DynaSpice, as well as notify DynaSpice license holders that the software contained Silvaco trade secrets and to encourage customers to discontinue using DynaSpice.

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