Trade secrets are valuable intellectual property that give the owner a competitive edge against others in the same field. They are protected without registration and can last through infinite generations of owners, if they remain a secret.  Therefore, protecting a trade secret and keeping it from the hands of competitors is fundamental to businesses utilizing trade secrets to their advantage.

Proactive Measures for Trade Secret Protection

Trade secrets come in many forms, such as recipes, mailing lists, special methods, processes – anything that gives the owner an advantage over others, thereby providing great value. They are typically used in daily business. However, employees come and go and partners can split and go separate ways. So, implementing proactive protective measures to maintain the secrecy of trade secrets is a best practice.  The use of non-disclosure agreements, employment contracts, and non-compete agreements are some examples of protection. Although contracts can be breached, they at least give an owner a fall back with potential remedies and recovery of damages.

How Far Would One Go To Uncover A Trade Secret?

In recent news between Google’s Waymo and Uber, there have been claims of conspiracies, spies, phone recordings, competitive intelligence teams, etc. The accusations spurring from the lawsuit between the two companies would make a good movie. The one thing that’s clear about the controversy is that companies can and will go to extremes to protect trade secrets worth millions of dollars.

A New Era of Trade Secret Litigation

The Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016 (“DTSA”) is the first federal law creating a federal civil cause of action for misappropriation of trade secrets. Previously, trade secret law was handled at a state level in state courts. This fairly new federal law makes it easier for companies to seek remedies for trade secret misappropriation via a federal forum. Therefore, an increase in trade secret litigation is expected as has been seen over the last year. Since damages in trade secret cases are handled differently than for other intellectual property cases, knowledge of requirements to obtain certain awards, such as attorney’s fees is important. Businesses utilizing trade secrets for success should seek counsel knowledgeable in trade secret law to help ensure proper provisions are included in business agreements and adequate protections are implemented to maintain the confidentiality of trade secrets.

For more information on this topic, please visit our Trade Secret Protection service page, which is part of our Technology & Data Practice.

Klemchuk LLP is an Intellectual Property (IP), Technology, Internet, and Business law firm located in Dallas, TX.  The firm offers comprehensive legal services including litigation and enforcement of all forms of IP as well as registration and licensing of patents, trademarks, trade dress, and copyrights.  The firm also provides a wide range of technology, Internet, e-commerce, and business services including business planning, formation, and financing, mergers and acquisitions, business litigation, data privacy, and domain name dispute resolution.  Additional information about the technology & data law firm and its technology & data attorneys may be found at www.klemchuk.com.

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