Managers and the Legal Environment 7th Edition by David Madsen, Constance Bagley

Exercise 4

Shurgard Storage Centers, the industry leader in full- and self-service storage facilities in both the United States and Europe, sued its competitor Safeguard Self Storage for allegedly embarking on a "systematic" scheme to hire away key employees for the purpose of obtaining trade secrets. Shurgard claimed that Eric Leland, a Shurgard employee subsequently hired by Safeguard, used Shurgard's computers to access various trade secrets and proprietary information belonging to Shurgard and to send e-mails containing the information to Safeguard. Leland was still employed by Shurgard at the time he sent the e-mails.
Shurgard alleged violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act as well as misappropriation of trade secrets, conversion, unfair competition, and tortious interference with a business expectancy. Safeguard moved to dismiss the CFAA claims. [Shurgard Storage Centers, Inc. v. Safeguard Self Storage, Inc., 119 F. Supp. 2d 1121 (W.D. Wash. 2000).]