Case Study of Reverse Engineering a Trade Secret

1 Case Study of Reverse Engineering a Trade Secret 

The following case study of reverse engineering a trade secret is based on the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals report on Chicago Lock Co. v. Fanberg (Ninth Circuit Court, 1982). 

An appeal was filed to the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The Ninth Circuit Court agreed with the Fanbergs argument that the District Court erroneously concluded that they were liable under Section 3369 of the Civil Code of the State of California for acquiring the appellee s trade secret through improper means, and on this basis the Ninth Circuit Court reversed the District Court. 

The Ninth Circuit Court pointed out A trade secret does not offer protection against discovery by fair and honest means such as by independent invention, accidental disclosure or by so-called reverse engineering, that is, starting with the known product and working backward to divine the process. 

The Ninth Circuit Court further conclude that the Fanbergs procurement of other locksmiths reverse engineering data is also a fair business practice because they did not intenhonally induce the locksmiths to disclose the trade secrets in breach of the locksmiths duty to the company of nondisclosure. 

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