Timothy B. McCormack, attorney at law, writes about: Religious Technology Center v. Lerma dealt with the effect of postings on the Internet. Two postings had been made by a disgruntled former church member ten days before the Church of Scientology obtained a TRO. The Virginia district court found that the Internet posting made the information generally known at least to the relevant people in the new group. The court reasoned that although the person originally posting the information on the Internet may be liable for trade secret misappropriation, a party who merely downloads the information is not liable because there is no misconduct in interacting with the Internet.

The dispute over trade secret protection for the religious scriptures of the Church of Scientology continued in Religious Technology Center v. Netcom On-Line Communication Services, Inc. ("Netcom I"). As in the Lerma case, the defendant Erlich in the Netcom I case had posted portions of the religious scriptures of the Church on the Internet. A preliminary injunction based upon violation of trade secrets was denied initially on the ground that there was no showing of a likelihood of succeeding

Written by Timothy B. McCormack, attorney at law and trade secret lawyer and provided by McCormack Intellectual Property PS.