Ben-Nadav Hafri

But the court was not convinced.

But the court was not convinced.

This is the classic version of the case. Black and white. Bimbo catches muffin thief, accuses executive of stealing all sorts of trade secrets. Except his lawyer Liz says, if you look at those documents, there's no evidence of that.

This is the classic version of the case. Black and white. Bimbo catches muffin thief, accuses executive of stealing all sorts of trade secrets. Except his lawyer Liz says, if you look at those documents, there's no evidence of that.

Liz says, sure, in those documents there's financial information, cost-saving strategies, etc. Confidential stuff, but that's in a different category than the ancient muffin trade secrets.

Liz says, sure, in those documents there's financial information, cost-saving strategies, etc. Confidential stuff, but that's in a different category than the ancient muffin trade secrets.

Bimbo leads with the nooks and crannies in the muffins. But in all the fine print of their complaint, nary a nook nor a cranny. And yet Liz thinks that's really what this was all about.

Bimbo leads with the nooks and crannies in the muffins. But in all the fine print of their complaint, nary a nook nor a cranny. And yet Liz thinks that's really what this was all about.

What anyone on the outside of the case knows is the result. Chris got crushed. If you search this case online, you'll see an example made of it on all sorts of law firm websites. You'll find it in an introductory textbook for intellectual property law. But in none of those will you hear whether Bimbo Bakeries was truly able to hold its most legendary secret up under scrutiny.

What anyone on the outside of the case knows is the result. Chris got crushed. If you search this case online, you'll see an example made of it on all sorts of law firm websites. You'll find it in an introductory textbook for intellectual property law. But in none of those will you hear whether Bimbo Bakeries was truly able to hold its most legendary secret up under scrutiny.

Because the case never went to trial. It was meant to go to trial, but Liz told me there wasn't money for a trial. The judge ruled in favor of Bimbo. Hostess told the New York Times, we have a business to run. We have to move on. Liz appealed the case and lost. The ruling stood. Now, I'll grant you that Chris was not an ideal defendant, but this case had real consequences for his life.

Because the case never went to trial. It was meant to go to trial, but Liz told me there wasn't money for a trial. The judge ruled in favor of Bimbo. Hostess told the New York Times, we have a business to run. We have to move on. Liz appealed the case and lost. The ruling stood. Now, I'll grant you that Chris was not an ideal defendant, but this case had real consequences for his life.

Bimbo didn't respond to a request for comment by the time we recorded this episode. I tried for months to reach Chris Botticella. Finally, I found an address, and I wrote him a letter. He wrote me an email in which he described traveling to the hearing across the country, even though he lived in California, scrambling to pay for the appeal and going bankrupt.

Bimbo didn't respond to a request for comment by the time we recorded this episode. I tried for months to reach Chris Botticella. Finally, I found an address, and I wrote him a letter. He wrote me an email in which he described traveling to the hearing across the country, even though he lived in California, scrambling to pay for the appeal and going bankrupt.

He writes, quote, You will never understand the impact that this had on my personal and professional life. What first grabbed me about this story was the idea that the nooks and crannies of a Thomas's English muffin had some supercharged legal power. But by this point, after reporting the story, I realized what this had meant, at least to Chris.

He writes, quote, You will never understand the impact that this had on my personal and professional life. What first grabbed me about this story was the idea that the nooks and crannies of a Thomas's English muffin had some supercharged legal power. But by this point, after reporting the story, I realized what this had meant, at least to Chris.

And when I talked to Louis and Jeannie about the future of trade secrecy, I saw a world of trade secrets opening up before me, at once futuristic and medieval, where every company had mystical codebooks full of secret recipes, a nook and cranny for every employee. Nooks and crannies is a shorthand for trade secret. But the actual trade secret of the nooks and crannies never came before a jury.

And when I talked to Louis and Jeannie about the future of trade secrecy, I saw a world of trade secrets opening up before me, at once futuristic and medieval, where every company had mystical codebooks full of secret recipes, a nook and cranny for every employee. Nooks and crannies is a shorthand for trade secret. But the actual trade secret of the nooks and crannies never came before a jury.

I had learned that this controversy was, to my mind, unresolved. So we at Revisionist History decided to resolve it. We are trying to free the muffin. So we're reverse engineering the muffin recipe.

I had learned that this controversy was, to my mind, unresolved. So we at Revisionist History decided to resolve it. We are trying to free the muffin. So we're reverse engineering the muffin recipe.