What is “Injunctive Relief” and How Can it be Used to Protect Trade Secrets?
In addition to allowing the recovery of economic damages, the Minnesota Uniform Trade Secrets Act allows employers to obtain “injunctive relief” to protect their trade secrets. In this regard, the Act provides as follows: (a) Actual or threatened misappropriation may be enjoined. Upon application to the court, an injunction shall be terminated when the trade secret has ceased to exist, but the injunction may be continued for an additional reasonable period of time in order to eliminate commercial advantage that otherwise would be derived from the misappropriation. (b) In exceptional circumstances, an injunction may condition future use upon payment of a reasonable royalty for no longer than the period of time for which use could have been prohibited. Exceptional circumstances include, but are not limited to, a material and prejudicial change of position prior to acquiring knowledge or reason to know of misappropriation that renders a prohibitive injunction inequitable. (c) In appropria
