Opinion ID: 207675
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Trade Secret Claims

Text: In December 2004, the district court granted CTS's motion for summary judgment disposing of Plaintiffs' trade secret claims. Trade Secret Opinion, No. SA CV 02-578, slip op. at 4. The court reasoned that the claimed trade secret of the use of a combination of lithium carbonate and citric acid in calcium sulphoaluminate cement had been publicly disclosed in a Japanese patent, preventing it from being a secret and therefore defeating a trade secret claim. Id. at 3a. Further, according to the court, even if Plaintiffs were permitted to define the secret as a more specific ratio of the two compounds, the publication of the more general combination in the Japanese patent encompassed the specific ratio. Id. Ultimax argues that the court erred in dismissing the trade secret claims. According to Ultimax, a secret's availability from a published source is not a defense to trade secret theft under California law unless CTS also obtained the secret from the published source, which CTS did not do. Instead, Ultimax argues, CTS illegally obtained the secret from Ultimax. Ultimax adds that, contrary to CTS's argument, the secret was not disclosed in the '684 patent. CTS responds that it is undisputed that the use of lithium carbonate and citric acid in cement was published in the Japanese patent and elsewhere. Furthermore, according to CTS, Ultimax also disclosed the use of lithium carbonate and citric acid in cement in the '684 patent. CTS asserts that a non-public secret is required for a trade secret. We agree with CTS that the court properly granted summary judgment disposing of Plaintiffs' trade secret claims. We apply the trade secret law of the appropriate state, in this case, California. Roton Barrier v. Stanley Works, 79 F.3d 1112, 1116 (Fed.Cir.1996). The Ninth Circuit reviews the district court's grant of summary judgment de novo. Universal Health Servs., Inc. v. Thompson, 363 F.3d 1013, 1019 (9th Cir.2004). Summary judgment is appropriate when a party cannot establish an essential element of its case. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c) (Summary judgment is appropriate if there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.). Under California law, a trade secret must (1) [d]erive[] independent economic value, actual or potential, from not being generally known to the public or to other persons who can obtain economic value from its disclosure or use; and (2) [be] the subject of efforts that are reasonable under the circumstances to maintain its secrecy. Cal. Civ.Code § 3426.1(d). Thus, a trade secret must not have already been generally known to the public. Public disclosure, that is the absence of secrecy, is fatal to the existence of a trade secret. In re Providian Credit Card Cases, 96 Cal.App.4th 292, 304, 116 Cal. Rptr.2d 833 (2002). Further, [i]t is well established that disclosure of a trade secret in a patent places the information comprising the secret into the public domain. Once the information is in the public domain and the element of secrecy is gone, the trade secret is extinguished and the patentee's only protection is that afforded under the patent law. Stutz Motor Car of Am. v. Reebok Int'l, 909 F.Supp. 1353, 1359 (C.D.Cal.1995) (quotation marks, citations, and footnote omitted); see also Forcier v. Microsoft Corp., 123 F.Supp.2d 520, 528 (N.D.Cal.2000). Ultimax's argument focuses on how CTS obtained the alleged secret information, attempting to rebut a possible defense to a trade secret claim, but that is irrelevant if there is no secret. Here, Ultimax has not shown that it had a secret. Information disclosed in a patent, even a foreign one, is generally known to the public, especially the relevant public in the cement industry. Indeed, one of the primary purposes of patent systems is to disclose inventions to the public. See Bruckelmyer v. Ground Heaters, Inc., 445 F.3d 1374, 1379 (Fed.Cir.2006) (finding a foreign patent, like a U.S. patent, publicly accessible because one skilled in the art exercising reasonable diligence could find it and it was classified and indexed in the foreign patent office). We therefore affirm the district court's grant of summary judgment with respect to Plaintiffs' trade secret claims, as Ultimax cannot prove the existence of a secret.