Reading ComprehensionDifficulty: Medium

PT126 S2 P1 Q4 Explanation

Trade Secrets

A free, expert breakdown of this official LSAT Reading Comprehension question.

TopicsInferenceLaw

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Passage

Often when a highly skilled and experienced employee leaves one company to work for another, there is the potential for a transfer of sensitive information between competitors. Two basic principles in such cases appear irreconcilable: the right of the company to its intellectual property—its proprietary data and trade secrets—and the right of free employment decisions. But it is also doubtful that they are effective in preserving trade secrets.

It is obviously impossible to divest oneself of that part of one's expertise that one has acquired from former employers and coworkers. Nor, in general, can one selectively refrain from its use, given that it has become an integral part of one's total intellectual capacity. Nevertheless, almost any such information that is data, including inventions, generated by the employee in connection with the company's business.

Once an employee takes a position with a competitor, the trade secrets that have been acquired by that employee may manifest themselves clearly and consciously. This is what court injunctions seek to prohibit. But they are far more likely to manifest themselves subconsciously and inconspicuously—for example, in one's daily decisions at the transfer of information except for the passage of documents and other concrete embodiments of the secrets.

What this question is testing

Inference

Your task

Find what must be true based on what the passage or stimulus states.

Common trap

Answers that are plausible or likely but not actually guaranteed by the text.

Winning move

Keep only the choice the statements fully support — eliminate anything that requires an extra assumption.

Reading along? Open the full official question in LawHub — we show a fragment here and keep the reasoning in our own words.

The question
4.

The passage provides the most support for which one of the

Answer choices

  1. Out of Scope11% picked this

    Injunctions should be imposed by the courts only when there is strong reason to believe that an employee

    Limits on when injunctions should be imposed are not discussed in the passage.

  2. Correct79% picked this

    There is apparently no reliable way to protect both the rights of companies to protect trade secrets and the rights of

    Why this is right

    This is supported in the first paragraph.

    Skill tested: Inference · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.

  3. Contradiction3% picked this

    Employees should not be allowed to take jobs with their former employers' competitors when their new job could compromise trade

    The passage suggests that individuals have the right to free employment decisions (first paragraph).

  4. Contradiction3% picked this

    The multiplicity of means for transferring information in the workplace only increases the

    The multiplicity of means for transferring trade secrets actually make it more difficult for injunctions to be effective in protecting a company’s trade secrets (third paragraph).

  5. Out of Scope5% picked this

    Some companies seek injunctions as a means of punishing employees who take jobs

    Punishing former employees through injunctions is not discussed in the passage.

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