Authorities
Trinidad v. OpenAI Inc.
Trinidad v. OpenAI (N.D. Cal. 2026): sharing with a public AI tool defeats secrecy.
Citation: Trinidad v. OpenAI Inc., No. 25-cv-06328-JST (N.D. Cal. Jan. 5, 2026)
Type: Case
Jurisdiction: Federal
Issuing body: U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California
Status: Decided (dismissed with prejudice Jan. 5, 2026)
Court: U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California
Parties: Trinidad v. OpenAI Inc.
Docket: No. 25-cv-06328-JST
Proceeding: court decision
The Northern District of California dismissed a self-represented plaintiff's trade secret claim because she alleged no reasonable measures to keep her ChatGPT-developed frameworks secret; she had shared them with OpenAI without alleging a duty of confidentiality. Under 18 U.S.C. ยง 1839(3), a trade secret owner must have taken reasonable measures to keep the information secret. The order concerns those allegations and does not decide the treatment of an enterprise deployment governed by confidentiality commitments. It binds no other court.
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