Trade Secret Protection on a Publicly Sold, Patented Spinal Implant Device: Life Spine, Inc. v. Aegis Spine, Inc

This article analyzes Life Spine, Inc. v. Aegis Spine, Inc., 8 F.4th 531 (7th Cir. 2021), an important decision providing trade secret protection on a publicly sold, patented spinal implant device. For an implant comprised of multiple components and subcomponents, the precise measurements of the implant's components and subcomponents can be protectable as trade secret information, even though a patent has disclosed the implant's structure. Life Spine teaches that a patent covering such an implant reveals nothing about how to measure precise dimensions of those components or subcomponents, that public displays of an implant product must be done with limiting a visitor's ability to observe the product, that an implant product is sold through non-public channels directly to surgeons or hospitals, and that delivery and surgical use of an implant product must be done with forbidding others who have no confidentiality duties from examining the implant product.