Bio
Adjunct Professor Charles Tait Graves has taught a course on trade secret law since 2009. A partner at Wilson Sonsini in San Francisco, he has more than twenty-five years of experience handling countless trade secret matters in Silicon Valley and around the country.
Tait is also one of the nation鈥檚 most widely-cited writers on trade secret law.聽 His ideas have generated influential precedents and changed California law protecting mobile employees and the companies hiring them.聽 He has published widely on the theory, history, and practice of trade secret law.
Publications:
- Co-author with Camilla A. Hrdy, 鈥Workplace 鈥楢cquisition鈥 of Trade Secrets,鈥 in Research Handbook on Trade Secrecy in Data and Data Infrastructure (Edward Elgar, ed. R. Dreyfuss, C. Morten, & K. Strandberg) (forthcoming 2026)
- 鈥淲hat is Ready Acertainability?鈥 27聽Tulane Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property 1, 2025
- 鈥淭he Part for the Whole in Trade Secret Law,鈥 33聽Texas Intellectual Property Law Journal聽197, 2025
- 鈥淚ntentionality in Trade Secret Law,鈥澛39聽Berkeley Technology Law Journal聽720, 2024
- 鈥淲ould a Successful FTC Noncompete Ban Reduce Lawsuits Against Employees Who Change Jobs?鈥 75聽UC Law Journal聽1441, 2024
- 鈥淐uriosities of Standing in Trade Secret Law,鈥 20聽Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property聽159, 2023
- “Questioning the Co-Worker Non-Solicitation Covenant,” 55聽Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review聽959, 2022
- Co-author with Sonia K.聽Katyal, “From Trade Secrecy to Seclusion,” 109聽Georgetown Law Journal聽1337, 2021 (Winner of the 2022 McCarthy Institute award for best IP law review article of the year)
- “Should California鈥檚 Film Script Cases be Merged into Trade Secret Law?” 44聽Columbia Journal of Law & the Arts聽21, 2020
- “Preparing to Quit: Employee Competition versus Corporate Opportunity,”聽41聽Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law聽333, 2020
- Co-author with Robin Feldman, “Naked Price and Pharmaceutical Trade Secret Overreach,” 22聽Yale Journal of Law and Technology聽61, 2020
- “Is the Copyright Act Inconsistent with the Law of Employee Invention Assignment Contracts?” 8聽NYU Journal of Intellectual Property & Entertainment Law聽1, 2019
- “Is There an Empirical Basis for Predictions of Inevitable Disclosure?” 18聽Wake Forest Journal of Business & Intellectual Property Law聽190, 2018
- Co-author with Elizabeth Tippett, “UTSA Preemption and the Public Domain: How Courts Have Overlooked Patent Preemption of State Law Claims Alleging Employee Wrongdoing,” 65聽Rutgers Law Review聽59, 2013; reprinted in聽Trade Secrets and Undisclosed Information, edited by S. Sandeen and E. Rowe, 2014
- “Trade Secrecy and Common Law Confidentiality: The Problem of Multiple Regimes,”聽The Law and Theory of Trade Secrecy: A Handbook of Contemporary Research, edited by R. Dreyfuss and K. Strandberg, 2011
- “Analyzing the Non-Competition Covenant as a Category of Intellectual Property Regulation,” 3聽Hastings Science & Technology Law Journal聽69, 2011
- “Trade Secrets as Property: Theory and Consequences,” 15聽Journal of Intellectual Property Law聽39, 2008
- “The Law of Negative Knowledge: A Critique,” 15聽Texas Intellectual Property Law Journal聽387, 2007
- Co-author with B. Range, “Identification of Trade Secret Claims During Litigation: Solutions for a Ubiquitous Dispute,” 5聽Northwestern Journal of Technology & Intellectual Property聽68, 2007
- “Non-Public Information and California Tort Law: A Proposal for Harmonizing California’s Employee Mobility and Intellectual Property Regimes under the Uniform Trade Secrets Act,” 2006聽UCLA Journal of Law & Technology聽1, 2006
- Co-author with J. DiBoise, “Do Strict Trade Secret and Non-Competition Rules Obstruct Innovation?” 1聽Ohio State Entrepreneurial Business Law Journal聽323, 2006 (symposium presentation)
- “Bad Faith and the Public Domain: Requiring a Pre-Lawsuit Investigation of Potential Trade Secret Claims,” 8聽Virginia Journal of Law & Technology聽12, 2004
- Co-author with Alexander Macgillivray, “Combination Trade Secrets and the Logic of Intellectual Property,” 20聽Santa Clara Computer & High Technology Law Journal聽261, 2004
From 2017-2020, Tait served as a co-chair of the drafting group on identification of trade secret claims for the Sedona Conference’s Working Group on trade secret law, an effort by judges, academics, and practitioners to promulgate recommendations on various aspects of the law. The resulting聽publication聽is The Sedona Conference, Commentary on the Proper Identification of Asserted Trade Secrets in Misappropriation Cases, 22聽Sedona Conference Journal聽223 (2021).
Education
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UC College of the Law, San Francisco
J.D.,聽Cum Laude 1998 -
UC Berkeley
B.S., with Honors 1994