Securities brokerage firm Charles Schwab filed suit against a former employee who left the company and started his own wealth management firm. Charles Schwab claimed that the names of its clients, along with information regarding their accounts and assets, were trade secrets. The employee therefore misappropriated these trade secrets when he contacted the clients to ask them to transfer their accounts to his new firm. Charles Schwab argued that the employee could not have learned of these individuals but for his work at the Charles Schwab brokerage. Do you think this customer information will be treated as a trade secret? What factors do you think the court will consider when determining whether the customer information is a trade secret?
[Charles Schwab & Co. Inc. v. Douglas Castro, Case No. 650053/2013 (E.D.N.Y. January 7, 2013).]