Rule 507. Trade Secrets

(a) General rule. A person has a privilege to refuse to disclose, and to prevent any other person from disclosing, a trade secret that the person owns.

(b) Who may claim the privilege. The privilege may be claimed by:

(1) The person who owns the trade secret;

(2) The person's agent; or

(3) The person's employee.

(c) Exceptions. The trade secrets privilege does not apply if it will conceal fraud or otherwise work injustice. If the court directs that the trade secret be disclosed, it must take measures to protect the interests of the trade secret's owner, the other parties, and justice.

Committee Notes

Maine Restyling Note [November 2014] Maine Rule 507 has been restyled in accordance with the federal restyling conventions, and, as part of this process, the Committee has proposed some minor, nonsubstantive changes to clarify the Rule.

Advisers' Note to former M.R. Evid. 507 (February 2, 1976) This privilege is widely recognized. No Maine case has been found, but M.R.C.P. 26(c) allows the judge in discovery proceedings to make any order which justice requires including an order "that a trade secret or other confidential research, development, or commercial information not be disclosed or be disclosed only in a designated way." This evidence rule extends the underlying policy from the discovery stage into the trial. The difference in circumstances between the two stages may well be enough to require a different ruling at trial. The privilege is a limited one. Patents and copyrights secure ample protection when they are obtainable. The need for protection of trade secrets without resort to public registration is relatively rare, and Wigmore says the presumption should be against their propriety. The rule allows the privilege only if it will not tend to conceal fraud or otherwise work injustice. The last sentence of the rule gives room for judicial ingenuity in evolving protective measures to achieve some control over disclosure. Perhaps the most common is simply to take the testimony in camera.