Patent case: Handel’s Enterprises Inc. v. Schulenburg, USA

Ice cream shop franchisor showed that franchisee misappropriated a trade secret and that it would suffer irreparable harm absent a preliminary injunction.

An ice cream parlor franchisor showed that information it gave to a franchisee was not known outside the business and was restricted by confidentiality agreements and was therefore likely a trade secret, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled. In an unpublished opinion, the appellate court affirmed a district court’s finding that the franchisor had a likelihood of success at trial and would be irreparably harmed absent a preliminary injunction barring the franchisee from setting up a competing ice cream parlor (Handel’s Enterprises, Inc. v. Schulenburg, April 1, 2019, Cole, R.).

Case date: 01 April 2019

Case number: No. 18-3596

Court: United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit

A full summary of this case has been published on Kluwer IP Law.