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P manufactures and sells chocolate chip cookies. P had begun producing chocolate chip cookies by incorporating walnut shavings, also called 'chaff, nut meal, nut dust, and nut crunch,' into the cookie mix. After that, 'sales took off immediately. [The nut meal] did to the cookies what butter does to popcorn, or salt to a pretzel. It really made the flavor sing.' P brought an action against D alleging that D had stolen a secret chocolate chip cookie recipe from P and was manufacturing and selling cookies using that formula. D was permanently enjoined from 'making, baking, and selling chocolate chip cookies which use or utilize P's formula.' D appealed, and the Appeals Court affirmed the judgment. P filed a petition of contempt claiming that D violated the permanent injunction. The judge found that many of the ingredients used by P and D are common to most commercially made chocolate chip cookies, but no commercial cookie manufacturer, except P, uses nut meal. He found that 'it is the nut meal . . . which gives P's [their] unique and distinctive flavor.' Following the injunction, D did not use nut meal in their chocolate chip cookies, but added four ounces of vanilla per batch of approximately 1,100 cookies. P did not use vanilla in its cookies. 'As a result of this substitution, D's cookies, which previously had a nutty taste similar to P, thereafter developed a distinctive vanilla flavor.' The judge also determined that D altered their formula in other ways that affected their chocolate chip cookies' texture and taste. The court concluded that D does not make, bake, and sell chocolate chip cookies that use or utilize P's formula. P appealed. P claims that its chocolate chip cookie formula, which includes not only specific ingredients but also the proportions in which those ingredients are used, has been adjudicated a trade secret, and that, therefore, others rightfully may neither manufacture nor sell competing products derived from it. P claims that D 'used' P's formula even though, as the judge found, they modified it in numerous ways. P claims that D did not produce an 'independent product,' but rather produced the 'substantial equivalent' of P's product -- a product substantially derived from P's formula. From this, P claims that D is in contempt.

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