Previous Story
Frito-Lay asks court to retain protective order
|
Posted on Sep 28 1999
Frito-Lay Enterprises, Inc., which manufactures potato chips, asked Federal Judge Alex Munson yesterday to allow the company to keep its confidential trade secrets by retaining the court’s protective order.
Frito-Lay was sued by a Saipan resident, Edward P. Comport, who claimed he found a fried roach inside his Frito-Lay bag.
Comport’s attorney, Timothy Skinner, has asked the federal court to lift the protective order and stop Frito-Lay from stamping the label “confidential” on all the documents it files with the court.
Timothy Farrell, attorney for Frito-Lay, maintained there are information and details about the company which cannot be made public.
The plaintiff, for example, wanted Frito-Lay to describe “how you select and prepare a bag of Lay’s potato Chips.”
Farrell said the company cannot accede to the plaintiff’s demand that it reveal its manufacturing process as it would give its competitors undue advantages.
“Public policy favors freedom of the press, but that protective order may be appropriate in non-journalist cases,” Farrell said.
Since Comport is not a journalist, Farrell said, “he has no standing to challenge the court’s order.”
Farrell also argued that Comport’s case “has no social significance.”
“He is simply a man who lives in roach-infested house with unsupported allegations against a potato chip manufacturer,” Farrell said.
Farrell said Comport may only be interested in forcing the company to settle the case rather than disclose trade secrets. (MCM)
