Plaintiff filed a lawsuit against its former business partner alleging misappropriation of trade secrets under federal law and unjust enrichment under Illinois common law. The district court entered summary judgment in favor of the defendant by finding that plaintiff failed to define its trade secrets with sufficient specificity. The case moved to pretrial proceedings on the unjust enrichment claim and the plaintiff voluntarily dismissed that claim after the district court granted a motion in limine limiting the scope of the claim. The district court then entered a final judgment in favor of the defendant and plaintiff appealed. The Seventh Circuit affirmed, finding that plaintiff failed to come forward with evidence from which a jury could conclude that its software modules qualified as trade secrets and that the district court did not abuse its discretion in precluding plaintiff from arguing a new and undeveloped theory of liability shortly before trial. (BRENNAN and KOLAR, concurring)
Federal 7th Circuit Court
Civil Court
Trade Secrets