This Law Firm Publication by Fisher & Phillips LLP discusses the Massachusetts Superior Court case C.R.T.R. v. Lao, in which the court summarily dismissed an employer's claim for the misappropriation of trade secrets after an independent contractor took company information for his own purposes, including customer lists, accounting information and other confidential information. The court ruled that the employer failed to take active steps to protect its purported trade secrets from disclosure even though it knew the contractor was simultaneously working for a competitor. The court found it significant that the employer never required the contractor to sign a confidentiality agreement and that it had no company policy in place to protect the confidentiality of its information.