Terms Used In North Carolina General Statutes 66-157

  • Misappropriation: means acquisition, disclosure, or use of a trade secret of another without express or implied authority or consent, unless such trade secret was arrived at by independent development, reverse engineering, or was obtained from another person with a right to disclose the trade secret. See North Carolina General Statutes 66-152
  • Trade secret: means business or technical information, including but not limited to a formula, pattern, program, device, compilation of information, method, technique, or process that:

    a. See North Carolina General Statutes 66-152

An action for misappropriation of a trade secret must be commenced within three years after the misappropriation complained of  is or reasonably should have been discovered. (1981, c. 890, s. 1.)