Chicago Business Litigation Lawyer Blog
Statutory fee-shifting is usually meant to incentivize plaintiffs to bring claims involving important rights but relatively low monetary damages. Some statutes provide for fee-shifting not only to successful plaintiffs but also to successful defendants. As the recent decision in the case of Multimedia Sales & Marketing, Inc. v. Marzullo illustrates, plaintiffs considering bringing trade secret misappropriation claims in Illinois courts would be wise to review their claims before filing so to ensure that their claims are not meritless.
The plaintiff in the lawsuit, Multimedia Sales & Marketing, Inc., is a radio advertiser who sued a competitor, Radio Advertising, Inc., along with three former employees who left Multimedia to work for Radio Advertising. Multimedia alleged that the former employees misappropriated Multimedia’s potential customer lead lists or renewal lead lists, which these individuals allegedly used to attempt to woo away Multimedia’s existing and potential customers. Multimedia claimed the lists were protectable trade secrets under the Illinois Trade Secrets Act (ITSA), 765 ILCS 1065/1 et seq.
The trial court disagreed and granted the defendants summary judgment finding that the lists (1) did not qualify as a trade secret under ITSA, and (2) were not “secret” because Multimedia widely shared them with numerous parties including radio stations. Following the grant of summary judgment, the defendants filed a motion for attorney’s fees as permitted by Section 5 of the ITSA. The trial court granted the defendants’ motion and awarded them $71,688 in attorney’s fees. Multimedia then appealed the ruling that the lists did not qualify as trade secrets as well as the award of attorney’s fees. Continue reading ›