Pine Valley v. Ajinomoto North America CA2/4

INTRODUCTION

Pine Valley, Inc. developed frozen fried rice recipes and sold its fried rice products to retailers such as Trader Joe’s. After Pine Valley contracted with an outside company to make the fried rice products, the outside company was purchased by Ajinomoto.1 Ajinomoto then used Pine Valley’s trade secret recipes to make its own fried rice products, which it began selling to Trader Joe’s and other retailers. Pine Valley sued Ajinomoto for breach of contract, violation of California’s Uniform Trade Secrets Act (Civ. Code, § 3426 et seq.2) (UTSA), and other claims. In 2016 a jury found in favor of Pine Valley, found that Ajinomoto willfully and maliciously misappropriated Pine Valley’s trade secrets, and awarded damages. The trial court denied Pine Valley’s request for an injunction under the UTSA, but held that Ajinomoto must pay Pine Valley a royalty on sales of all fried rice products based on Pine Valley’s recipes, for as long as Ajinomoto sold such products. The judgment stated that Ajinomoto could be relieved from the royalty requirement by submitting evidence that it was no longer using Pine Valley’s trade secrets. The judgment, including the royalty award and an…