Tempo Instrument v. Logitek
United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York
229 F. Supp. 1 (1964)

- Written by Rich Walter, JD
Facts
Tempo Instrument, Inc. (Tempo) (plaintiff) hired Herbert Fischer (defendant) in order to reap the benefits of Fischer’s experience working for other manufacturers of transistor circuits. Tempo regarded its own so-called Gate circuit as a trade secret, a fact that was well-known to Fischer and other Tempo employees. Tempo eventually obtained a patent for the circuit itself, but the patent did not extend to the purchasing, manufacturing, and testing techniques that Tempo utilized in making the circuits. Fischer remembered and made use of those techniques after he left Tempo to start his own rival company, Logitek, Inc. (defendant). Tempo sued Fischer and Logitek in federal district court, alleging that although the techniques themselves were not patented, they constituted trade secrets that Fischer and Logitek had misappropriated. On the strength of the parties’ pleadings, Tempo moved for a preliminary injunction to stop the alleged misappropriation.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Zavatt, C.J.)
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