Trade Secret Attorney, Non-Compete Agreement Attorney

Trade Secret Protection is Critical.

 

Welcome to Trade Secret Law Radio, we bring you the best in trade secret news, legal advice and information. From trade secret misappropriation to trade secret agreement drafting and negotiation, we cover the issues here.

Welcome to Internet Law Radio. This is Attorney Enrico Schaefer.  My law firm specializes in internet law issues.  We have an internet law attorney for just about anything that occurs on the internet.  Today, we’re going to be talking about trade secret protection. 

In the age of intelligence and information and Ideas, trade secrets are becoming critically important.  The first thing that you need to understand is, really, what is a trade secret.  The last thing you want to end up is in trade secret litigation, so the best thing you can do is protect yourself on the front end to make sure that your trade secrets are secure, and they’re not going anywhere.  My number one tip for that is you need a trade secret program.

That program is going to identify your trade secrets in-house.  It’s going to identify who has access to those trade secrets.  It’s going to identify, as you develop trade secrets in the future, what kind of process those trade secrets are going to go into for protection.  Your trade secret protection is going to be both process and documents. 

Non-Compete Agreement Considerations for Employers

This is Enrico Schaefer. Welcome to Internet Law Radio.  I am an internet law attorney specializing in a variety of technology and internet law issues ranging from cybersquatting to trademarks to copyrights to non-compete and trade secret agreements.  Today, we’re going to be talking a little bit about non-compete agreements.  And we’re going to be talking about those agreements from the employer perspective. 

When you are drafting a non-compete agreement, there are a number of things that you need to consider from the employer point of view.   In Michigan and many other states, non-compete agreements are considered enforceable to the extent they are reasonable and support a legitimate business purpose.  So, it’s really important when you’re drafting your non-compete to understand who’s the employee that’s going to be signing it, and how are you going to explain to a court if there should be non-compete litigation or a lawsuit to enforce a non-compete agreement.  What are you going to tell the judge is your explanation for needing this non-compete agreement?  And, although the bar is not particularly high for that particular element, you need to be able to explain, and it’s best if the rationale is at least suggested, if not, expressed in the non-compete agreement itself.