Preliminary Injunction Issued By Nebraska Federal District Court To Level The Playing Field in Trade Secrets Dispute

A federal district court in Nebraska recently issued a significant preliminary injunction preventing trade secret misappropriation and unlawful competition in a contentious dispute between two freight companies.  West Plains, L.L.C. v. Retzlaff Grain Co., Case No. 8:13CV47 (D. Neb., Feb. 26, 2013).

A group of freight forwarders employed by CT Freight allegedly resigned en masse and went to work for start-up RFG Logistics, a CT competitor. Before resigning, they allegedly communicated their intentions with each other and with some CT customers, and supposedly they secretly downloaded to their personal computers CT’s marketing information (which they maintained was publicly available). Their departure allegedly decimated CT’s freight forwarding department. The employees were bound by a trade secret confidentiality policy and, while employed by CT, a prohibition against competing, but they did not commit to post-employment non-competition or non-solicitation obligations.

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