Altavion, Inc. v. Konica Minolta System Laboratory, Inc.

Trade secret protection “ ‘promotes the sharing of knowledge, and the efficient operation of industry,’ ” by “ ‘permitting] the individual inventor to reap the rewards of his labor by contracting with a company large enough to develop and exploit it.’ [Citation.]” (DVD Copy Control Assn., Inc. v. Burner (2003) 31 Cal.4th 864, 878 [ 4 Cal.Rptr.3d 69 , 75 P.3d 1 ] (DVD Copy Control).) Trade secret law allows the inventor to disclose an idea in confidential commercial negotiations certain that the other side will not appropriate it without compensation. “[T]he holder of the secret . . . [may] disclose information he would otherwise have been unwilling to share, and [this] permits business negotiations that can lead to commercialization of the invention or sale of the idea, serving both the disclosure and incentive functions of [intellectual property] law.” (Lemley, The Surprising Virtues of Treating Trade Secrets as IP Rights (2008) 61 Stan. L.Rev. 311, 336-337, fns. omitted.)

Appellant and defendant Konica Minolta Systems Laboratory, Inc. (KMSL), is a research and development subsidiary of a multinational corporation that, among other things, manufactures multifunction…