Warner-Lambert Pharmaceutical Co. v. John J. Reynolds, Inc.
United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
178 F. Supp. 655 (S.D.N.Y. 1959)
Under a licensing agreement, Lambert's predecessor (plaintiff Warner-Lambert) agreed to pay monthly royalties to Lawrence's successor (defendant Reynolds) for as long as Lambert continued selling Listerine, in exchange for the formula; after the formula eventually became publicly known, Lambert sued seeking a declaration that it no longer owed royalties since the trade secret had been lost, arguing trade-secret licenses should be treated like patent or copyright licenses with a fixed duration tied to the underlying intellectual property's protected life.
Whether, in agreements involving royalty payments in exchange for exclusive disclosure of a trade secret, a court will imply a limitation on the payment terms based on the trade secret's later loss of secrecy.