Sweetzel accused its former plant manager George Kummer of taking Sweetzel cookie recipes and customer lists when he left his employment, and using them to start a competing company called Hawk Hill Cookies, Inc. Sweetzel claimed that Hawk Hill’s “Aunt Ginny’s Famous Spiced Wafers” were based on Sweetzel’s secret spiced wafer recipes, and that even the black and orange product packaging was a rip-off. Sweetzel also alleged that its secret customer lists were used to market the stolen snacks.
In determining that the recipes and customer lists were indeed trade secrets, the court found that Sweetzel had taken steps to limit their exposure, noting that “[a]lthough not kept under lock and key, the formulations were documented only once on paper and access was limited to a few people.” The court also observed that “knowledge of the trial formulations was limited only to those who...
