Trade Secret Disputes
A trade secret can be a company's most valuable asset, and the moment it walks out the door, every hour counts. We litigate trade-secret theft, pursuing fast injunctions to stop a departing employee or competitor from using stolen information, and defending companies and individuals wrongly accused of taking what was really their own knowledge.
Talk to an attorneyFounded
1965
Attorneys
11
AV-rated
Martindale-Hubbell
Office
Bellevue, WA
Founded
1965
Attorneys
5
AV-rated
Martindale-Hubbell
Office
Bellevue, WA
Trade secret lawyers for Bellevue and Seattle companies
Oseran Hahn litigates trade-secret disputes for Pacific Northwest companies, on both the protecting and the defending side. These cases move faster than almost any other commercial litigation: the value of a secret evaporates once it's out, so the fight usually opens with an emergency motion in the first days, not a complaint that sits for months. We pursue and defend misappropriation claims under Washington's Uniform Trade Secrets Act and the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act, seek and oppose injunctions, and litigate the damages, fees, and employee-mobility questions these cases raise.
A trade-secret dispute is a race to control information before it spreads. We help companies identify and protect what actually qualifies as a trade secret, because the law only guards information a business took reasonable steps to keep secret. We pursue misappropriation claims under the state and federal trade-secret statutes when an employee or competitor takes it. We move for the emergency injunctions that decide these cases in their first days. We litigate the damages, exemplary damages, and attorney fees the statutes allow. And we defend the accused, drawing the line between a protected secret and an employee's own skill and knowledge.
Identifying and protecting trade secrets
Not everything a company wants to keep private is a trade secret, and the threshold question often decides the case. Under Washington's Uniform Trade Secrets Act, a trade secret is information that derives real economic value from not being generally known and that the owner took reasonable steps to keep secret (RCW 19.108.010). Customer lists, pricing models, formulas, manufacturing processes, and source code can all qualify, but only if the business actually protected them, through confidentiality agreements, access controls, and labeling. We help companies establish that their information meets the definition before a dispute, and we build the record that it did when litigation comes, because the reasonable-measures element is where many claims succeed or fail.
Misappropriation claims under the UTSA and DTSA
Misappropriation is the improper acquisition, use, or disclosure of a trade secret, and the most common version is a departing employee who leaves with files, a customer list, or know-how and puts it to work for a competitor. We litigate these claims under Washington's Uniform Trade Secrets Act (RCW 19.108) and the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act (18 U.S.C. 1836), which since 2016 has provided a parallel federal claim and, in extraordinary cases, an order to seize the stolen material. The two statutes often run together, and we plead them to put the case in the right forum with the fullest set of remedies available.
Emergency injunctive relief
Trade-secret cases are won or lost in the first days, because once a secret is used or disclosed its value is gone. The central remedy is an injunction stopping the misappropriation, and the statute expressly authorizes it (RCW 19.108.020). We move immediately for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction under Civil Rule 65 to freeze the situation, and we act just as fast to preserve evidence, through forensic imaging of devices and accounts before files can be wiped. On the defense side, we oppose overbroad injunctions that would shut down a legitimate competitor or bar an employee from working at all. Either way, the opening motion usually sets the trajectory of the entire case.
Damages, exemplary damages, and attorney fees
When a secret has already been used, the case turns to what the theft cost and what the wrongdoer gained. Washington's act allows recovery of the owner's actual loss plus the misappropriator's unjust enrichment, or a reasonable royalty where neither is easily proven (RCW 19.108.030). For willful and malicious misappropriation, the court can add exemplary damages of up to twice the award, and it can award attorney fees, which also run against a party that brings a misappropriation claim in bad faith (RCW 19.108.040). That two-way fee provision disciplines both sides, and we weigh it candidly with clients before pursuing or defending a claim.
Defending misappropriation claims
Trade-secret claims are also a competitive weapon, sometimes filed to slow a departing employee or a new rival rather than to protect anything genuinely secret. We defend companies and individuals accused of misappropriation by attacking the claim where it's weakest: the information was publicly known or readily ascertainable, it was independently developed or reverse-engineered, the plaintiff never took reasonable steps to protect it, or what the employee carried away was their own general skill and knowledge, which the law does not lock up. Washington has not embraced the inevitable-disclosure theory some states use to restrict employees, and the Trade Secrets Act displaces overlapping tort claims (RCW 19.108.900), both of which we use to narrow an overreaching case. We also coordinate the defense with any non-compete dispute, since the two often arrive together (RCW 49.62).
Sixty years advising Pacific Northwest companies, with a trial group built to act in days, not weeks, when information is the asset at risk. We know these cases are decided at the opening injunction, so we are ready to seek one, or defeat one, immediately, and to litigate the damages and fees that follow.
We are built for the first 72 hours.
Trade-secret cases turn on speed: an emergency motion, a preservation demand, forensic imaging before files disappear. We mobilize immediately, because the relief that matters is the one you get before the secret is used.
We litigate both sides of the claim.
We pursue misappropriation for the companies whose secrets were taken, and we defend the employees and rivals accused of taking them. Working both sides keeps our judgment about a claim's real strength honest.
We weigh the two-way fee risk.
Washington awards fees for willful theft and for bad-faith claims alike. We tell clients candidly where a case sits on that line before the first motion, so the strategy fits the exposure.
The attorneys behindthe work.
Our business and corporate attorneys handle this work alongside our litigation team, so you have coverage whether your matter stays transactional or becomes something more.
What clientsask us first.
An employee left and took our customer list and files. What can we do?
Move fast. If the information qualifies as a trade secret, you can sue for misappropriation under Washington's Uniform Trade Secrets Act and the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act, and, critically, seek a temporary restraining order and injunction to stop its use immediately. The first step is usually preserving evidence, including forensic images of devices and accounts, before files are deleted. Because these cases are decided in their early days, the time to call a lawyer is the day you discover the loss, not after the information has spread.
What actually counts as a trade secret in Washington?
Information that has real economic value because it isn't generally known, and that you took reasonable steps to keep secret (RCW 19.108.010). Customer lists, formulas, pricing, processes, and source code can all qualify, but only if you actually protected them with confidentiality agreements, access restrictions, and similar measures. Information that's publicly available, readily figured out, or that you never safeguarded usually won't qualify. The reasonable-measures requirement is often the whole ballgame, which is why protecting the information beforehand matters so much.
How is a trade-secret claim different from a non-compete?
A non-compete restricts where an employee can work; a trade-secret claim protects specific information regardless of any agreement. They often arrive together when a key employee leaves, but they're governed by different law. Non-competes face strict limits in Washington under RCW 49.62, and many aren't enforceable, while trade-secret protection exists independently and doesn't depend on a signed restriction. When both are in play, we coordinate them, often leading with the trade-secret claim because it doesn't carry the non-compete's enforceability hurdles.
We've been accused of stealing trade secrets but we developed our product ourselves. Can we fight it?
Yes, and these claims are often defensible. Common defenses include that the information was public or easily ascertainable, that you developed it independently or by reverse engineering, that the plaintiff never protected it as a secret, or that what your new hire brought was their own general skill rather than a protected secret. Washington also declines to follow the inevitable-disclosure theory that some states use to restrain employees. Just as important, Washington awards attorney fees against a party that brings a misappropriation claim in bad faith, which we use when a claim is really about suppressing competition.
How quickly do we have to act to protect a trade secret?
Immediately, often within days. The value of a trade secret disappears once it's disclosed or used, so courts expect a party that's serious about protection to move quickly for an injunction, and delay can undercut both the claim and the urgency a court will credit. Fast action also preserves the digital evidence, which is frequently overwritten or deleted within weeks. We treat a suspected theft as an emergency, because the legal system rewards the party that acts like one.
What can we recover if someone misappropriated our trade secret?
Under Washington's act you can recover your actual losses plus the misappropriator's unjust enrichment, or a reasonable royalty where those are hard to quantify (RCW 19.108.030). If the theft was willful and malicious, the court can add exemplary damages of up to twice that amount and award your attorney fees (RCW 19.108.040). But the most valuable remedy is usually the injunction that stops the use before the damage is done, so we pursue the order first and the money second.
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Trade-secret misappropriation, emergency injunctions, and defense for Pacific Northwest companies, employees, and competitors.
Oseran Hahn P.S. · 11225 SE 6th St, Suite 100 · Bellevue, WA 98004
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