Ah, the sweet smell of trade secrets in perfumes… Every company in the world has trade secrets whether they know (or smell?) it or not.
Revlon just sued a competing beauty company and four ex-Revlon employees in Manhattan federal court for theft of trade secrets and breach of contract / non-solicitation, all regarding a large and profitable deal with Britney Spears (though Britney was not accused of any wrongdoing).
The employees left Revlon to join competitor Give Back Beauty and brought the Britney Spears relationship with them. Britney was at the end of a 20-year partnership deal (from 2004 to 2024), and signed with the new firm, instead of renewing the Revlon relationship.
Revlon noted that the new contract was signed very quickly, and was only possible with inside information from the four ex-employees. Additionally, one of the ex-employees accessed more than 250 documents before leaving Revlon, including proprietary information about the Britney Spears relationship.
Suppose you’ve been following trade secret litigation. In that case, you might be thinking “Baby One More Time” when senior executives leave a company to join a competitor and access many confidential files on their way out the door. You might also wonder if “Oops I Did It Again” when the competitor developed a product much faster than normally possible due to access to trade secrets. All of these “Toxic” ingredients can land you in federal court.
It is still very early in the lawsuit, so it’s too soon to make any predictions. For Revlon, hopefully, they have solid employment contracts and manage their trade secrets well.