When they were still in college, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss (the Winklevoss twins), along with their business partner and fellow student Divya Narendra, came up with an idea for a new and exclusive social networking website for Harvard students. Lacking the computer programming skills necessary to bring their idea to fruition, the Winklevoss twins and Narendra hired college sophomore Mark Zuckerberg to help them complete their proposed social network’s “source code.” The rest is history, as they say. The Winklevoss twins and Narendra now allege that Zuckerberg misappropriated their trade secrets when he stole their idea and source code in order to launch a competing social networking website behind their backs called “The Facebook.”

CASE QUESTIONS

1. What evidence will the Winklevoss twins and Divya Narendra need to produce in order to enforce their trade secrets?

2. Although this case was ultimately settled out of court, which side would have been most likely to win on the merits of the trade secret claim had this case gone to a jury?