Divided 3rd Circuit Affirms Preliminary Injunction Ruling In Trade Secrets Suit

Mealey's (February 26, 2019, 2:19 PM EST) -- PHILADELPHIA — A federal district court did not abuse its discretion in declining to apply the unclean hands doctrine granting a preliminary injunction in a trade secret misappropriation lawsuit against former employees of a consulting engineering firm because the firm’s alleged monitoring of one of the defendants’ social media activity after his departure from the company was not related to the claims made against the defendants, a divided Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled Feb. 25 in a nonprecedential opinion (Scherer Design Group LLC v. Ahead Engineering LLC, et al., No. 18-2835, 3rd Cir., 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 5520)....