Tucson Embedded Sys. Inc. v. Turbine Powered Tech. LLC

The United States District Court for the District of Arizona applied Arizona’s Uniform Trade Secrets Act legislation to grant Tuscon Embedded Systems Inc.’s (“TES”) motion for summary judgment on April 8, 2016. TES sued Turbine Powered Technology for Turbine’s alleged failure to pay TES for parts used to modify Turbine’s engine product into a one-megawatt generator. Turbine counter-sued, claiming that TES had stolen its trade secrets, including “parameters and settings, including timing, temperatures, flow rates, horsepower settings, pressures” and instructions on making and operating the modified engines. The court granted TES’s summary judgment motion because Turbine’s description of the trade secrets were not legally sufficient.

The court noted that when describing claimed trade secrets, “catchall phrases” typically can’t reach the level of specificity required to establish the substance of a legally protectable secret and survive a summary judgment motion. This decision is in line with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit’s decision in Imax Corp. v. Cinema Techs., Inc., 152 F.3d 1161 (9th Cir. 1998), which held that “dimensions and tolerances” are too vague to clearly establish the substance of the trade secret.

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