Example scenario:

Does this example scenario (shown above) about misappropriation seem fair and reasonable, or does it seem like overreaching? Would most people be comfortable with having past employers being able to dictate the terms of their future employment seemingly?

CoolEdge Consider a competitor who takes a public tour of CoolEdge's facilities. While the group is asking questions, the competitor sneaks into a room and takes pictures. Clearly, this is inappropriate. However, you probably should have taken steps to ensure that the competitor could not wander into private areas of particular importance. Thus, although the conduct is unethical, it may not be unlawful because the information taken may not have been sufficiently protected to be a trade secret. As another example, what would you think if a competitor went out of its way to take sophisticated aerial photographs of CoolEdge's facilities while the company was building a new state-of-the-art production plant, and thereby learned valuable insights about certain secret processing operations?!? If this situation seems different, it is probably because you feel that CoolEdge could do nothing else, within reason, to prevent such aerial snooping