Banks; oil and gas leases; trade secrets. All three came to a front in a longstanding legal battle that culminated in a decision by the Eight Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday July 17, 2015, affirming that a bank had misappropriated an energy company’s trade secrets.

The Court of Appeals upheld a decision from the U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota that Macquarie Bank Ltd. misappropriated confidential geological and seismic information it had received as part of the collateral on a loan to develop oil and gas leases, some of which were to be on reserves of North Dakota’s Bakken Shale formation.Continue Reading Value is in the Eye of the Court: Eighth Circuit Affirms Macquarie Bank’s Misappropriation of Trade Secrets, Resolving Longstanding Dispute