Colorado Magistrate Judge Outlines Stringent Pleading Requirements Which Must Be Satisfied Before Plaintiffs Alleging Trade Secret Misappropriation Can Compel Responses To Discovery Requests; Judge Also Encourages Filing Pleadings Under Seal

A recent opinion issued by a U.S. Magistrate Judge for the District of Colorado with respect to a discovery dispute in a trade secret misappropriation case may please defense counsel, but create headaches for plaintiffs’ lawyers, because the Court set harsh pleadings standards that plaintiffs must meet. The Court seems to have been more sympathetic (a) to the defendants’ and the court’s desire to have identification “with reasonable particularity” of the supposedly misappropriated trade secrets, than to (b) the justifiable reluctance of plaintiffs to disclose detailed confidential information.   If the Court’s reasoning becomes generally accepted, plaintiffs may decide that some trade secret misappropriation claims are better left unfiled rather than making disclosures with the requisite specificity.

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