When it comes to high-profile trials of software programmers accused of stealing proprietary code, the government is seeking to close part of the testimony to outsiders. The goal is to protect confidential programming techniques and perhaps actual code.

Prosecutors have made this requested in two trials: the trial of Sergey Aleynikov, the former Goldman Sachs programmer, and more recently the trial of Samarth Agrawal, a former programmer at Societe General. Bother trials are scheduled for this month.

Reuters reports that in recently filed court documents, prosecutors asked U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff, who is hearing the Agrawal trial, to seal exhibits from the public, close the court to the public when the evidence addresses the nature of the trade secrets, and seal certain transcripts.

This might seem innocuous but Argawal's lawyers intend to fight it. They say it creates a kind of bias for the jury, underscoring the secretive nature of the product at question and thus playing to those opposed to an alleged thief of such secrets. It's not likely that discrete code snippets are really that valuable. But such requests are not unheard of. This could be a ploy in part.

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