Court Opinion

ID: 9850124
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 04:52:27.697207+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:20:32.080776
License: Public Domain

Justice PLEICONES,
concurring in part:
I concur in the majority’s ruling that Atwood’s homeowners list is not a trade secret as defined by the South Carolina Trade Secrets Act, S.C.Code Ann. § 39-8-10 et seq (“Act”). Accordingly, I agree that the circuit court improperly enjoined Shaw and other appellants employed at E disto Sales from “contacting and contracting” with any Edisto Island homeowner on Atwood’s client list.
*74However, based upon the record before us, I cannot join the majority’s holding that Atwood’s renters list does not qualify as a trade secret. I would thus affirm the temporary injunction in regards to Atwood’s renters list and allow Atwood’s cause of action based on a violation of the Act to proceed to trial.
A vacation rental agency derives independent economic value from protecting the identity of its renters because the agency’s renters list is not “readily ascertainable by proper means” by any other competing rental agency. See S.C.Code Ann. § 39 — 8—20(5)(i) (Supp.2006). Atwood understandably attempts to prevent disclosure of its renters list in order to maintain clients, as repeat business is vital to its success.
The majority reasons that Atwood’s renters list is not a trade secret because some of Atwood’s renters contacted Shaw and because some renters provided personal contact information in guestbooks or directly to homeowners. While these facts may be relevant to Shaw’s defense to Atwood’s claim that Shaw misappropriated2 the renters list, i.e. received the identity of renters by improper means, they do not determine whether the renters list, taken as a whole, qualifies as a trade secret. Regardless, simply because some renters chose to contact Shaw or because the occasional renter left his contact *75information does not make Atwood’s entire renters list “readily ascertainable.”
Accordingly, I concur with the majority that Atwood’s homeowners list is not a trade secret as defined under the Act. I also agree with the majority’s holding that the security bond ordered in this case was inadequate to satisfy Rule 65(c), SCRCP, and the case should be remanded to the circuit court for a determination of the proper amount of the security bond. However, as to its renters list, Atwood has met the necessary criteria for a temporary injunction,3 and I would allow Atwood’s claim under the Act to continue to trial.
BURNETT, J., concurs.

. Misappropriation of a trade secret is specifically defined in S.C.Code Ann. § 39-8-20(2) as:
(a) acquisition of a trade secret of another by a person by improper means;
(b) acquisition of a trade secret of another by a person who knows or has reason to know that the trade secret was acquired by improper means; or
(c) disclosure or use of a trade secret of another without express or implied consent by a person who:
(i) used improper means to acquire knowledge of the trade secret; or
(ii) at the time of disclosure or use, knew or had reason to know that his knowledge of the trade secret was:
(A) derived from or through a person who had utilized improper means to acquire it;
(B) acquired by mistake or under circumstances giving rise to a duty to maintain its secrecy or limit its use; or
(C) derived from or through a person who owed a duty to the person seeking relief to maintain its secrecy or limit its use; or
(iii) before a material change of his position, knew or had reason to know that it was a trade secret and that knowledge of it had been acquired by accident or mistake.

. To obtain a preliminary injunction, a party must demonstrate irreparable harm, a likelihood of success on the merits, and an inadequate remedy at law. Scratch Golf Co. v. Dunes West Residential Golf Properties, Inc., 361 S.C. 117, 603 S.E.2d 905 (2004).