Pribich

Boris Pribich appeals after a jury convicted him of one count of the theft of trade secrets (Pen. Code, § 499c, subd. (b)(2)) and found the offense to be a misdemeanor petty theft. The court suspended imposition of sentence, placed appellant on summary probation for three years, ordered him to pay restitution of $400, and stayed payment of a $1,000 fine. Appellant contends that the evidence was insufficient to support his conviction and that there were various jury instruction errors. We find the evidence insufficient as to a requisite element of the offense and reverse.

Facts

In April of 1990, Mark Hancock, the executive vice-president of Aquatec, a company which designs and manufactures water coolers, hired appellant, an engineer, to work on a new type of water cooler. Appellant’s project was to work on a freonless cooler, Aquatec’s New Century water cooler, which would not use fluorocarbons and instead would use a thermal electric chip. Aquatec and Hancock had patents on the methods to use this chip in water coolers. The use of such a thermal electric chip was known, but it had never actually been applied to such a product. At Hancock’s request, appellant drafted a…