Secure your secret formula, process, or strategy with trade secrets .
Unlike other types of intellectual property, your trade secret rights require ongoing security efforts. Here's how we can help:
Trade Secret Evaluation
Find out whether your formula, process, or strategy will be likely to qualify as a trade secret.
Trade Secret Program Consultation and Training
Trade Secrets require ongoing security measures to protect your rights. Give your team the tools and training required to establish a program that will maintain the enforceability of your trade secrets. Trade secrets can last indefinitely, so long as you take reasonable measures to maintain their secrecy.
Trade Secret Enforcement
Even if your trade secret is revealed by misappropriation or espionage, a good trade secret protection program will give you the right to maintain its enforceability, and to take legal action against any parties responsible for wrongfully revealing your trade secret.
Establish a plan to keep your secrets safe.
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Trade secrets protect an advantageous formula, process, or strategy.
Trade secrets were first recognized by common law enforcement of secrecy provisions in contracts in the early 1800s, and were added to Federal Law by the Uniform Trade Secrets Act of 1979. To establish a trade secret, three key elements must generally be met under U.S. law (based on the Uniform Trade Secrets Act, widely adopted across states, and federal law like the Defend Trade Secrets Act).Â
To defend a trade secret, you will need to establish that you have made Reasonable Efforts to Maintain the Secrecy of Valuable Information that is Not Generally Known or Readily Ascertainable through legitimate means.
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Keeping a Trade Secret
The law requires "reasonable measures" to protect a trade secret. Here are some examples:
Identification of Trade Secret Material
Identify valuable secret information, label it as "secret" or "confidential" and keep an internal record of all such information that you need to protect.
Control Access
Establish physical and electronic measures to prevent unauthorized access to the trade secret information.
Non-Disclosure Agreements
Make sure you have effective NDA forms signed by everyone that will come in contact with the trade secret.
Training
Even after signing an NDA, employees and third parties with access to trade secret information should be trained on policies and procedures for safely handling confidential information.
Enforcement
Better secrecy measures can maximize your chances of prevailing in court, allowing you to punish theft or misappropriation, and maintain a defensible trade secret, even if the secret has been wrongfully discovered or leaked.
Let's work out a secrecy program.
Straightforward answers to common questions about trade secrets .
What kinds of information can be a trade secret?
Any information that is not generally known, and has commercial value due to its secrecy. Examples include chemical formulas, food and drink recipes, marketing plans, pricing strategies, customer data, manufacturing processes, source code, data analysis methods, logistics and distribution schemes, training manuals and best practices.
How long does a trade secret last?
Trade secrets last as long as reasonable measures are maintained to secure the secret, or until someone else independently develops the same method or procedure.
Can a trade secret be protected against any type of disclosure?
No. Trade secrets only protect against disclosure of your information via improper means. This includes cases where the information is taken by breach of NDA, bribery, coercion, espionage, fraud, misrepresentation, or theft. A trade secret cannot be enforced against the use of information that is discovered by independent research, or by some other legitimate means.