Source code, model weights, pricing data, customer lists, formulas, and manufacturing processes are often worth more than anything a company has patented or registered. Trade secret law protects them only if they derive value from being secret and you take reasonable measures to keep them that way. Our trade secret services cover both halves of that job: building and testing the protections, and enforcing them when information walks out the door. We draft the agreements, design the programs, and handle the litigation, so the program we help you build is one we know how to prove in court. Our engineering background helps us pin down what is truly secret inside a technical system.
What Our Trade Secret Work Covers
Trade secrets are protected by the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act, 18 U.S.C. Section 1836, and by state statutes based on the Uniform Trade Secrets Act, which nearly every state has adopted, with common law and state-specific statutes filling the gaps. Our services span the full cycle: identifying and classifying secrets, building protection programs, auditing existing measures, drafting NDAs and confidentiality clauses, structuring non-compete and non-solicitation covenants, onboarding and exiting employees, and responding to suspected theft. When protection fails, we pursue or defend misappropriation claims in federal and state court, including emergency injunctions. We work for companies protecting their information and for companies and individuals accused of taking it, which gives us a practical view of which protections actually hold up.
The Trade Secret Services We Offer
Trade secret protection programs turn scattered confidentiality efforts into a documented system that identifies, classifies, and controls access to your most valuable information. Trade secret audits measure your actual practices against the reasonable-measures standard and deliver a prioritized remediation plan. NDA drafting produces one-way and mutual agreements, along with reusable templates, that are clear enough to enforce. DTSA counsel covers federal claims, civil seizure, remedies, and the whistleblower immunity notice employers should include in their agreements. Employee mobility and non-competes addresses departures, competitive hiring, garden leave, and restrictive covenants under widely varying state law. Trade secret litigation pursues and defends misappropriation claims, including temporary restraining orders, forensic discovery, and trial. Each service has its own page with more detail.
Misappropriation Claims And Emergency Relief
Trade secret cases move fast because the harm compounds daily. When a departing employee downloads files or a former partner launches a competing product, we preserve evidence, coordinate forensic imaging of devices and accounts, and evaluate claims under the DTSA and state law. Many cases begin with a motion for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to stop use and recover the information. The DTSA also allows ex parte civil seizure in extraordinary circumstances. Remedies include damages for actual loss and unjust enrichment or a reasonable royalty, exemplary damages of up to twice that amount for willful and malicious misappropriation, and in some cases attorneys' fees. On defense, we test whether the information is truly secret and whether the plaintiff protected it, and we push back on overbroad injunctions.
Protection Programs, NDAs, And Covenants
Most trade secret cases are won or lost on facts created years earlier. Courts ask what the secret is, who could access it, and what you did to protect it. We help you answer those questions in advance with information inventories, access controls, confidentiality markings, onboarding and exit procedures, and vendor terms. We draft NDAs and invention assignment agreements, and we make sure employee agreements include the whistleblower immunity notice under 18 U.S.C. Section 1833(b); without it, an employer cannot recover exemplary damages or attorneys' fees from that employee. We structure non-competes and non-solicits to fit state law, which ranges from California's near-total ban under Business and Professions Code Section 16600 to states that enforce reasonable restrictions. The FTC's 2024 nationwide non-compete rule was set aside in court and never took effect.
How A Trade Secret Engagement Runs
Advisory engagements start with interviews of the people who create and use the information, a review of your existing agreements and policies, and a look at the systems where the secrets live. For an audit, the deliverable is a written report that rates your protections and lists fixes in priority order, along with updated templates. Protection programs add policies, classification schemes, and training materials your team can run. Departure and hiring matters move on a short clock: we review the agreements, advise on the exit or onboarding, and send or answer demand letters within days. Litigation begins with evidence preservation and a decision on emergency relief, usually within the first week, followed by expedited discovery and a preliminary injunction hearing when the court allows it.
Technical Secrets And Business Disputes
Trade secret law sits where intellectual property, technology, and business disputes overlap more than anywhere else. The secret is often technical, such as source code, an algorithm, or a process recipe, and the dispute is usually commercial: a departing executive, a failed joint venture, a supplier that started competing, or an acquirer that walked away after diligence. Lawyers who can read a git log, follow a forensic report, and explain to a judge why a specific function is valuable have an advantage on both sides of the case. Our clients include software and AI companies, semiconductor and hardware businesses, manufacturers, fintech firms, life sciences and medical device companies, and consumer brands with proprietary formulas, along with executives and engineers changing jobs.
Fees, Timing, And When To Call
Defined work, such as an NDA, a template set, or a review of employee agreements, can often be handled at a flat fee with a fixed price, a stated scope, and a set turnaround. Audits and protection programs are scoped and quoted in writing after an initial conversation, and litigation is estimated by phase. Call us right away if you suspect information has been taken, because delay can undercut a request for emergency relief and evidence on devices can be lost. Call before a key employee leaves or a competitor's employee joins you, before you share confidential information with a potential partner or acquirer, and when you receive a demand letter accusing your company or a new hire of misappropriation.
