Details of potential costumers (leads) are a trade secret

A website that provides advertising services for businesses and sells sale leads terminated its engagement with a business but retained data on the business on the website and conveyed detailed of people who showed interest in purchasing products competitors of the business.
The Court held that this is misappropriation of trade secrets. Names of potential customers who are interested in services and left their details on a designated landing page are a "trade secret". Obtaining a trade secret without the consent of its owner by improper means, or the use of the secret by the person who took it, is misappropriation of a trade secret and entails compensation. Here, the website undertook to remove all advertising material upon termination of the contract, but despite the termination of the contract did not completely remove the content from the website and used it to attract surfers and interested customers. In addition, interested customers who entered the business' landing page located at the website and left personal information were eventually referred to competitors. However, the business’ actions were late and delayed for many months, thus contributing to the increased damage its sustained and thus the compensation was reduced.