The Supreme Court of Texas is now getting an opportunity to interpret how the recently adopted Uniform Trade Secrets Act (UTSA) will be applied in Texas.

The high court recently heard oral arguments related to a petition for a writ of mandamus filed in December 2014 by a Schlumberger subsidiary, M-I LLC, d/b/a M-I SWACO, related to ruling in a trade secrets controversy in a Harris County District Court. Schlumberger contends that the trial court judge erred by allowing a party alleged to have stolen trade secrets to be in the courtroom during evidentiary proceedings that talked about trade secrets.

The parties involved in the litigation, National Oilwell Varco (NOV) and M-I SWACO, are both oil-and-gas-services companies that manage waste products created by drilling. In its petition for writ of mandamus, M-I SWACO stated that in early 2014, NOV hired Jeff Russo, one of M-I SWACO's business-development managers. The petition includes several comments about Russo's alleged trade secret misappropriation.