Levine

Appellants are members of a limited co-partnership doing business under the names of Industrial Manufacturers, Ltd., and Santa Fe Tank and Tower Company, Division of Industrial Manufacturers, Ltd., and are engaged in the manufacture of wood tanks, cooling towers and other industrial wood specialties. The Santa Fe Tank and Tower Company, herein referred to as Santa Fe, is a sizable concern with a large plant in Vernon and branch offices in a number of key cities throughout the United States. Together with their corporate predecessors, appellants have been engaged in such operations for approximately 40 years. They instituted this unfair competition action to enjoin several former employees and an associate of one such employee from using or divulging any of plaintiffs’ trade secrets or other confidential information relative to plaintiffs’ manufacturing processes.

At the outset of the litigation a temporary restraining order and injunction was granted appellants, but following trial of the action judgment was rendered in favor of defendants and the preliminary injunction was dissolved. Plaintiffs appeal from this judgment contending that the evidence establishes that defendants,…