A case involving a request for a preliminary injunction was recently heard in the United States District Court in Nebraska involving a question of what constitutes confidential information. An employee of a fire/ life safety company executed an “Acknowledgment and Receipt of Employee Handbook” in 2015, which defined confidential information as “information which is not generally known or readily ascertainable by the general public through proper means.”
In September of 2018, the employee’s job responsibilities changed, giving the employee regular access to the employer’s network drive that allegedly contained confidential information and trade secrets. The employee was issued a company laptop, tablet, iPad and smartphone to complete the tasks assigned to him. In March 2019, the employee resigned and began working for another fire company. On his last day he returned the devices and submitted evidence that he destroyed USB devices potentially containing the employer’s information.