The US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit affirmed the denial of a preliminary injunction, finding that the district court did not abuse its discretion in concluding that the plaintiff’s asserted harms, including lost profits and injury from the alleged trade secret injury, could be adequately remedied through monetary damages. Revenue Management Solutions, LLC v. Commerce Bank, Case No. 25-3159 (8th Cir. July 23, 2026) (Gruender, Benton, Erickson, JJ.)
Revenue Management Solutions (RMS) licensed to Commerce Bank software that processes and organizes records and payment information. Commerce marketed the software under the name RemitConnect. Under the parties’ license agreement, Commerce received access to RMS’s confidential software and source code but was prohibited from copying or disclosing the software or source code, reverse engineering the software, or creating derivative works based on RMS’s proprietary technology.
In 2018, Commerce began developing its own software, RemitConnect 2.0. By 2025, RMS observed a decline in Commerce’s use of the licensed version of its software. Suspecting that Commerce had reverse engineered and copied its software, RMS moved for a preliminary injunction to prohibit Commerce from using RemitConnect 2.0. The district court denied the motion, concluding that RMS failed to present sufficient evidence of irreparable harm. RMS appealed.
RMS argued that the district court failed to recognize the irreparable harm resulting from Commerce’s misappropriation of its trade secrets. RMS asserted claims under the Defend Trade Secrets Act and the Missouri Uniform Trade Secrets Act, identifying two categories of trade secrets: sets of input-output data and segregation logic. According to RMS, Commerce misappropriated those trade secrets in developing RemitConnect 2.0.
The Eighth Circuit noted that the district court did not expressly discuss RMS’s trade secrets in its irreparable-harm analysis. The Court explained that RMS itself framed its alleged harm primarily as lost profits, referring to the misuse and disclosure of its trade secrets only in passing through a few parenthetical references. By characterizing its injury in terms of lost profits, RMS permitted the district court to conclude that any potential harm could be adequately remedied by an award of damages. The Eight Circuit thus concluded that the district court did not clearly err in finding that RMS failed to demonstrate irreparable harm.
Practice note: Although the loss, misuse, or disclosure of trade secrets may constitute irreparable harm, a plaintiff seeking injunctive relief should clearly articulate how the alleged misappropriation causes harm that cannot be adequately remedied by monetary damages. Framing the injury primarily as lost profits or another quantifiable economic loss may undermine the argument that preliminary injunctive relief is necessary.
