Akzo Nobel Codings Inc. v. The Dow Chemical Company, C.A. No. 8666-VCP (Del. Ch. June 5, 2015).

This Delaware Court of Chancery opinion is useful for its analysis of a claim for breach of a contractual duty to maintain the confidence of certain information.  Applying unremarkable standard contract interpretation principles, the court determined that the claim for disclosure of confidential information and breach of the related provisions of the agreement satisfied the notice pleading requirements under Court of Chancery Rule 8, which is part of the minimal notice pleading standard applicable to general contract claims.  See footnotes 51 through 53 and accompanying text.

The court determined that based in part on a factual issue about whether the alleged disclosure of confidential information was previously made publicly available, the claim met the reasonable conceivability standard, and the motion to dismiss was denied.  See also footnote 56 (noting case law recognizing Delaware’s lenient pleadings standard on a motion to dismiss, and allowing to proceed a sparsely pled claim for violation of a contractual duty to protect and not misuse confidential information).