ALTAVION, INC. V.KONICA MINOLTA SYSTEMS
Trade secret protection “ ‘promotes the sharing of knowledge, and the efficient operation of industry,’ †by “ ‘permit[ting] the individual inventor to reap the rewards of his labor by contracting with a company large enough to develop and exploit it.’ [Citation.]†( DVD Copy Control Assn., Inc. v. Bunner (2003) 31 Cal.4th 864, 878 (DVD Copy Control).) Trade secret law allows the inventor to disclose an idea in confidential commercial negotiations certain that the other side will not appropriate it without compensation. “[T]he holder of the secret, [may] disclose information he would otherwise have been unwilling to share, and [this] permits business negotiations that can lead to commercialization of the invention or sale of the idea, serving both the disclosure and incentive functions of [intellectual property] law.†(Lemley, The Surprising Virtues of Treating Trade Secrets as IP Rights (2008) 61 Stan. L.Rev. 311, 336-337, fns. omitted.)
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