Utah Supreme Court Says Power Generation Plant Trade Secret Case Goes to Trial

The Salt Lake Tribune has published an interesting story regarding the Utah Supreme Court's decision that a trade secret theft claim made by a power plant construction company called USA Power. Seems USA Power approached another company, PacifiCorp, in 2002 with a proposal to build a natural gas based power plant in Utah and then sell the plant to PacifiCorp upon completion. The parties agreed to look at USA Power's plants and signed an NDA covering what would be shared and spent months talking about the possibilities. After six months or so, according to USA Power, they got the "not interested" notice from PacifiCorp and further explanation that PacifiCorp was going to put the project out for bid.

But PacifiCorp won that bidding process THEMSELVES and built the plant approximately one mile from the USA Power site they had previously been shown. USA Power did not convince the trial court that their trade secrets had been stolen - but the Utah Supreme Court decided that the matter could go to the jury. We'll keep an eye on this one for you as USA Power claims damages of up to $500 million.