Klinke

Appellant Buffets Inc., doing business as Old Country Buffets (“OCB”), brought this action against Appellee Paul Klinke, et al., (“The Klinkes”), for misappropriation of trade secrets and violation of Washington’s Consumer Protection Act. OCB alleges that the Klinkes misappropriated its recipes and its job training manuals, both of which it claims are trade secrets, in order to open a buffet restaurant. The district court granted summary judgment for the Klinkes on the Consumer Protection Act claim and following a bench trial, entered judgment in favor of the Klinkes on the remaining claims. We affirm.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Buffets Inc., a Minnesota corporation, operates a nationwide chain of budget buffet restaurants under the name Old Country Buffet. The restaurants serve food cafeteria-style on an “all-you-can-eat” basis for a fixed price. Dennis Scott, one of the principal founders of OCB, developed the first OCB menus and instituted the OCB practice of “small batch cooking”: rather than preparing and storing large quantities of food at a time, which is standard practice in many buffet restaurants, Scott instead prepared small batches of food to insure freshness.…