Shrimp Genetics Case Dips Into Uncharted Trade Secret Realm (2)

Aug. 19, 2022, 9:21 AM UTCUpdated: Aug. 22, 2022, 4:08 PM UTC

A jury verdict believed to be the first to find that genetic material of a living organism qualified as a trade secret may add to precedent in a little-explored area of intellectual property law.

American Mariculture Inc. subsidiary American Penaeid Inc. and its principal should pay $10 million for improperly acquiring and attempting to sell Primo Broodstock Inc. shrimp that were specially bred to be resilient, a federal jury in Florida concluded. Nothing in trade secrets law prohibits an organism’s genetics from constituting protectable “information,” a federal judge said earlier this month in upholding the verdict.

Few trade secrets lawsuits ...

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