Opinion ID: 774360
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Strong's Trade Secrets

Text: 24 Strong assigned her rights in her patents, including the right to any trade secrets described therein, to Yeti by Molly. Deckers contends that Strong therefore owned no trade secrets and could not have suffered any damages from Deckers' misappropriation. 25 There is sufficient evidence in the record to support the jury's finding that Deckers misappropriated trade secrets owned by Strong. Strong testified that she revealed to Link the identity of many of her suppliers. For example, she told Link that she used Malden Mills for Polar-Tec fleece material and revealed the precise type of Polar-Tec that she preferred. She never transferred this secretly maintained list of suppliers to Yeti by Molly. The identity of a supplier can be a trade secret. See Mont. Code Ann. §§ 30-14-402(4); see also Ackerman v. Kimball Int'l Inc., 634 N.E.2d 778, 783 (Ct. App. Ind. 1994) (holding that supplier lists can be trade secrets under Indiana's Uniform Trade Secrets Act which uses the same definition of a trade secret as Montana) rev'd on other grounds 652 N.E.2d 507 (Ind. 1995); 1 Roger M. Milgram, Milgram on Trade Secrets §§ 1.09[8][c ] (2001) (collecting cases). Plaintiffs further introduced evidence that Link misappropriated this information, for example, a memo in which Link told Deckers' employees to use Malden Mills as its supplier and to use the type of Polar-Tec that Strong had specified. The record sufficiently supports the jury's verdict of $175,000 in damages to compensate Strong for Deckers' unjust enrichment and her lost profits arising from the misappropriation of these secrets.