Trade Secrets

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Intellectual Property and TechnologyTrade Secrets

Trade secrets protect the formulas, code, processes, and customer data that give you an edge. We build the safeguards that keep that information secret and enforce your rights fast when someone walks off with it.

A trade secret holds value precisely because it stays secret, and the law only protects information you have taken reasonable steps to guard. Whether your edge is source code, an algorithm, a manufacturing process, or a hard-won customer list, we help you put the right protections in place before there is a problem and respond decisively when someone tries to take it.

Building a Protection Program

Courts ask whether you treated your secrets like secrets, so the work starts well before any dispute. We help you identify and classify the information that genuinely qualifies, then implement access controls, network and physical safeguards, confidentiality policies, and labeling and documentation practices. Done right, that program both reduces the chance of a leak and gives you the evidentiary record you need if you ever have to enforce.

Employee and Departure Measures

Most trade secret loss walks out the door with people. We draft confidentiality and invention-assignment agreements, design onboarding and exit procedures that document obligations, and craft restrictive covenants that stay within what your state will actually enforce. When a key employee leaves for a competitor, we help you run a clean departure and preserve evidence in case the situation escalates.

Misappropriation Litigation

When information is taken, speed is everything. We move quickly to secure temporary restraining orders and preliminary injunctions, and we pursue claims under the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act and state trade secret statutes for damages and disgorgement. Our technical background lets us trace how the secret was copied or used and explain it to a court that needs to understand the technology to grant relief.

Frequently asked questions

A trade secret is information that has economic value because it is not generally known, and that you take reasonable steps to keep secret. That can include formulas, manufacturing processes, source code, customer lists, pricing, and business strategies. If the information is public or easy to figure out, or you do not protect it, it does not qualify.

Indefinitely, as long as you keep the information secret. There is no expiration date like a patent has. But the protection disappears the moment the secret gets out, whether through a leak, a published disclosure, or someone independently figuring it out on their own.

You have to take steps that are reasonable for your situation. In practice that usually means confidentiality agreements with employees and partners, limiting who can access the information, physical and digital security, employee training, and marking sensitive documents as confidential. Courts look at whether your efforts fit the value of what you are protecting.

Yes. The federal Defend Trade Secrets Act and state trade secret laws let you seek a court order to stop the misuse, recover damages, and in some cases recover attorneys' fees. Serious theft can also lead to criminal prosecution.

It depends on whether others could reverse-engineer or independently develop it. A patent requires you to publicly disclose the invention and lasts 20 years, but it stops competitors even if they invent the same thing on their own. A trade secret needs no disclosure and can last forever, but it gives you no protection against someone who discovers it independently. A formula like a soft drink recipe suits trade secret protection; a device competitors could take apart often suits a patent.

Move quickly but carefully. Preserve the evidence, run a careful internal investigation, and get counsel involved right away. Depending on the situation, you may need to ask a court for fast emergency relief to stop the information from spreading before it is too late.

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