Henkle & Joyce Hardware Co. v. MacO, Inc.

This is an action sounding in tort for money damages, founded upon an allegedly unlawful use of a trade secret. As the legal underpinning for its claim, the plaintiff relies upon a principle embodied in the following quotation from Restatement, Torts, section 757, page 1: “One who . . . uses another’s trade secret, without a privilege to do so, is liable to the other, if . . . (b) his . . . use constitutes a breach of confidence reposed in him by the other in disclosing the secret to him.” A jury was waived and the action tried to the court. After both sides had rested the court took the…