Silvaco Data Systems v. Intel Corp was a trade secrets case heard before the California Court of Appeal for the Sixth District. Silvaco sued Intel for misappropriation of trade secrets because Intel used software produced by a third-party that had misappropriated Silvaco's trade secrets. The appeals court affirmed the decision of the trial court to grant summary judgment in favor of Intel, finding that merely using infringing software does not constitute a trade secret infringement in itself.
Background
Silvaco is a California-based company that produces electronic design automation (EDA) software. Silvaco makes several EDA products including SmartSpice, a tool for designing and simulating analog circuits. In December 2000, Silvaco sued Circuit Semantics, Inc. (CSI) for misappropriating Silvaco's trade secrets in the design of DynaSpice, a CSI product that competed with SmartSpice. This case went to trial, where Silvaco eventually prevailed.
Silvaco then sued several customers of CSI that had used DynaSpice, including Intel. Silvaco argued that by using DynaSpice, Intel was guilty of misappropriation of trade secrets under the California Uniform Trade Secrets Act (CUTSA). Intel demurred; that is, they argued that, even if they had used DynaSpice, their use of DynaSpice did not constitute misappropriation of trade secrets. In particular, Intel presented evidence that they only received the