SciGrip, Inc. v. Osae

North Carolina resident Samuel Osae (defendant) worked as a chemist at SciGrip, Inc. (plaintiff), a North Carolina company that developed and manufactured structural adhesives. When Osae left SciGrip, he signed a termination agreement affirming his obligation to keep SciGrip’s proprietary information confidential. Osae went to work for Scott Bader, Inc. (Bader) (defendant), a competing adhesives company based in the United Kingdom. Although Osae traveled for work, Osae continued to reside in North Carolina. SciGrip later sued Osae and Bader, alleging, among other things, that Osae violated the North Carolina Trade Secrets Protection Act by misappropriating SciGrip’s trade secrets to develop a competing adhesive product for Bader. The allegedly wrongful conduct underlying the trade-secret claim, namely the disclosure and use of SciGrip’s proprietary information, occurred in the United Kingdom, Ohio, and Florida. However, SciGrip argued that North Carolina law applied to the claim because, among other things, the ultimate injury caused by the misappropriation occurred where SciGrip was located and Osae was a North Carolina resident who likely brought his work laptop and notes with him on trips home. Applying the choice-of-law rule lex loci delicti, meaning the place of the wrong, the trial court concluded that North Carolina law did not govern the trade-secret claim because the alleged misappropriation occurred in the United Kingdom, Ohio, and Florida, not North Carolina. Because the North Carolina Trade Secrets Protection Act did not apply, the trial court granted summary judgment in favor of Osae and Bader on the trade-secret claim. SciGrip appealed.