Mayberry filed a product liability action against Bridgestone alleging that tire tread separation caused a car accident that killed her son. During pretrial discovery, Mayberry sought the formula for the steel belt skim stock* on the tire in question. Bridgestone objected to these requests and moved for a court order to prevent disclosure of all trade secrets used to produce the tires, including the skim stock formula. Bridgestone claimed that the skim stock formula qualified as a trade secret because (1) it frequently took several years to arrive at the detailed formula for a new rubber compound; (2) the steel belt skim stock formula represented one of the tire companies’ most valuable assets and most closely guarded secrets; and (3) access to the recipes was very narrowly limited.

CASE QUESTIONS

1. If Bridgestone’s formula for the tire were already known to its competitors, would they have been able to protect it from discovery? Why or why not?

2. Under what circumstances would potential harm of disclosure outweigh the need for the information in a trial?