Perlan Therapeutics, Inc. v. Superior Court

Code of Civil Procedure section 2019.210 requires a plaintiff suing for misappropriation of its trade secrets to identify with “reasonable particularity” the purported trade secrets which allegedly have been misappropriated “before commencing discovery relating to the trade secret[s].” The court below concluded plaintiff Perlan Therapeutics, Inc.’s effort to meet this obligation fell short, and therefore granted defendants’ motion for protective order precluding Perlan from pursuing discovery relating to its claimed trade secrets until it provided a sufficient identification. Perlan asks this court to issue a writ of mandate or prohibition to the trial court, directing it to accept Perlan’s trade secret identification statement as sufficient and to allow Perlan to commence discovery.

We deny Perlan’s petition. Two recent cases make clear that trial courts can require too much particularity in a trade secret statement and thereby abuse their discretion under section 2019.210. (See Brescia v. Angelin (2009) 172 Cal.App.4th 133 [ 90 Cal.Rptr.3d 842 ] (Brescia); Advanced Modular Sputtering, Inc. v. Superior Court (2005) 132 Cal.App.4th 826, 833-834 [ 33 Cal.Rptr.3d 901 ]…