Fracking Fluid Dynamics: New Trade Secrets Movements
As oil prices remain volatile, trade secret and intellectual property protection continues to be a key component of ensuring profitability, according to Orrick’s Trade Secrets Watch. But the law in this area may be evolving quicker than industry insiders would like.
The article discusses a Pennsylvania case, Robinson Township v. Commonwealth, that may make it more difficult for some energy companies to protect the trade secret status of some of their most valuable information. In that case, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court struck down several remaining provisions of the state’s controversial P.L. 87 legislation, the Pennsylvania General Assembly’s short-lived and controversial attempt in 2012 to provide uniform laws and regulations governing oil and gas development in the Commonwealth.
“At the national level, the story is consistent with Pennsylvania’s — in the sense that the law and its direction remains variable,” the article says.