a. What did the defendants take from PID?
b. Can a list of patients be a trade secret?
c. What did Pollack have to do to qualify his patient list as a trade secret?
d. Had Pollack done this?
Drs. Toby Shawe and Samy Badawy worked for PID as independent contractors, receiving a certain percentage of the revenues from each patient they treated. Natalie Wilson was Dr. Pollack's medical assistant.
Dr. Pollack tentatively agreed to sell the practice to Drs. Shawe and Badawy. But instead of buying his practice, the two doctors decided to start their own, which they called Skinsmart. They executed a lease for the Skinsmart office space, offered Wilson a job, and instructed PID staff members to make copies of their appointment books and printouts of the patient list. Then they abruptly resigned from PID. Ms. Wilson called patients to reschedule procedures at Skinsmart The two doctors also called patients and sent out a mailing to patients and referring physicians to tell them about Skinsmart.
Dr. Pollack filed suit, alleging that the two doctors had misappropriated trade secrets.