Opinion ID: 1986699
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Trade Secret Question

Text: Whether there was a trade secret is a conclusion of law upon the applicable facts. Space Aero, supra, at 105-06, and authorities therein referred to. In his opinion, Judge Pugh said, on this matter: The plaintiff's business is operations research. This is generally defined as analyzing operations of governmental as well as commercial problems. It is concerned with the design, improvement and installation of integrated systems of men, materials and equipment or an analysis of operations and systems and a prediction of systems performance and reliability. As a practical definition, it is a group of highly skilled engineers and scientists gathered together under a corporation or partnership, who analyze a business, be it the government or a commercial business, in order to devise methods to improve its operation with efficiency and at the least cost. Cook, in claiming that Davidson and Talbird took ORI's trade secrets, testified that the secrets consisted of the grand design for work to be done for the various companies, that the design is on paper, in pieces and snatches, that to duplicate work theretofore done by ORI, a competitor would have to get this designing into his own mind so he could begin to implement. In the construction of the design, he said, all the sciences that are applicable are used. We do jobs, and by jobs most of us mean we construct a system that meets a stated need. It is kind of like  well, if you have designed a chair that is particularly pretty and particularly comfortable, that design, where it is not secret it is certainly a product of the creative effort, and there are some proprietary rights. However, Dr. George E. Kimball, vice-president of Arthur D. Little, Inc., another company engaged in operations research, who testified on behalf of ORI, in answer to a question of the court, said that the methods used to make the determinations are not usually referred to as trade secrets. He testified that mathematical models, which involve equations and other mathematical techniques, are the heart of the work. Generally speaking, an operations research study involves a rather complex system, and one has to do an analysis of how the entire system works. To make that analysis properly, it is necessary first of all to tear it apart and do its pieces, the fundamental units, and find out how each one of these works by itself; and then as a second phase to study the interrelationships between those units to finally work up to the entire system. While his company tries to avoid public disclosure, even if a competitor had Little's unpublished data    it might put him in a more favorable position than otherwise, though I don't believe it would be very favorable since it was our work he was trying to use. Major General Lipscomb of the Army Combat Developments Command, a graduate of the Military Academy and the National War College with a master's degree in engineering from Cornell University, has dealt with a number of operations research firms. He testified that no trade secrets were involved in his engaging Davidson through ORI as scientific advisor. In Space Aero, 238 Md. at 105-13, we considered the nature of a trade secret. Restatement, Torts § 757 comment b (1939) states that [a] trade secret is a process or device for continuous use in the operation of the business.    [T]he subject matter of a trade secret must be secret. We agree with Judge Pugh that operations research, from the evidence, involves the coordinated approach of skilled engineers and scientists to a particular problem, rather than a process or device. In any event, in our opinion, ORI did not prove the essential element of secrecy. Mycalex Corp. of America v. Pemco Corp., 64 F. Supp. 420 (D.C. Md. 1946) aff'd. 159 F.2d 907 (4th Cir.1947) and cases therein cited. See also Turner, Trade Secrets (London 1962) 24-31. We hold that there was no trade secret.