On November 2, 2017, Foltz Welding LTD filed a motion for preliminary injunction against its former employee and operations manager in the United Stated District Court Southern District of Illinois. The company filed a nine-count complaint against its former employee and requested injunctive relief and damages. Foltz Welding claimed that the former employee may have trade secrets on his personal computers or iCloud storage that could be given to his new employer.
On February 12, 2018, the Court granted Foltz’s motion for preliminary injunction, ordering that the former employee allow a computer expert that Foltz chooses. Specifically, the Court noted that the expert would be allowed to go through the former employee’s personal home computer, his daughter’s laptop, his iCloud storage, any other electronic device and any other data storage and be permitted to remove any emails or files.
The Court noted that the files being searched for could include “Foltz’s trade secrets or other proprietary data consisting of bidding strategies, bid files, project estimation files, project pricing files, project cost information, project construction specifications and as-built construction information, pricing strategies, labor or equipment rate sheets, customer lists, profit margins and financial relationships with its suppliers and customers, sales strategies and competitive bidding.strategies.”