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.
This is Brian, a trade secret attorney with Traverse Legal, PLC; a law firm representing trade secret owners and those looking to enforce their trade secret rights throughout the United States.
Today, I will be talking about trade secret protection. In order to talk about trade secret protection, it’s important for us to first define what a trade secret is. A trade secret is essentially any formula, pattern, device or compilation of information used in a business that gives that particular business a competitive advantage. It’s important that the trade secret, in fact, be secret. It can’t be something that’s known by everyone else. If it is, it doesn’t qualify under the definition of a trade secret.
Federal law defines trade secret as all forms and types of financial, business, scientific, technical, economic or engineering information. And this can include patterns, plans, compilations, program devices, formulas, designs, prototypes, methods, techniques, processes, procedures, programs or codes, whether they’re intangible or intangible form, and regardless of how they’re stored, compiled or memorialized in a physical, electronic, graphical or photographical way. What that really means is there are many different types of information that can qualify as a trade secret.
In order to know whether or not your particular piece of information does indeed qualify as a trade secret, there’s a couple things that can be done. The first is to specifically identify that trade secret. Is it a customer list? Is it a client list? Is it a piece of software code? Is it a recipe? Those specific kinds of identification is a critical first step.
Once you’ve identified it, you can have a trade secret lawyer help you research your particular state law to determine whether or not there are cases that have held that kind of information to qualify as a trade secret or not. Having that determination will allow you to move forward with either a trade secret misappropriation lawsuit or with a recognition that what you want to be confidential may not necessarily be a trade secret.
So, again, to recap, assuming that you do indeed have something that can qualify as a trade secret, it’s important to look at both the definition of trade secret and the existing case law that’s out there with regard to how they’ve handled that particular kind of information when ultimately determining if you have a protectable trade secret.
You should remember that at the end of the day, trade secret protection requires more than owning the trade secret. You have to take actual steps to continue to protect it, regardless of whether or not ultimately a court of law would deem it to be a protectable trade secret. And that can be simply having it subject to security, be it passwords and logins if it’s computer-based, be it lock and key if it’s in a physical storage area, whatever it might be, but you wouldn’t want to lose your right to trade secret protection because you failed to maintain the secrecy of it. The hardest obstacle to overcome is the original identification and establishment of the trade secret. Don’t jeopardize that trade secret by failure to treat it as secret and keep it private.
So, once again, this has been Attorney Brian Hall; dealing with trade secret protection.
You’ve been listening to Trade Secret Law Radio, where trade secret protection, legal cases, and defenses are always the topic of the day. Whether you are a trade secret attorney, a business looking to protect your trade secrets or have been accused of trade secret theft, we will answer your questions here.
Federal law defines trade secret as all forms and types of financial, business, scientific, technical, economic or engineering information. And this can include patterns, plans, compilations, program devices, formulas, designs, prototypes, methods, techniques, processes, procedures, programs or codes, whether they’re intangible or intangible form, and regardless of how they’re stored, compiled or memorialized in a physical, electronic, graphical or photographical way. What that really means is there are many different types of information that can qualify as a trade secret.
In order to know whether or not your particular piece of information does indeed qualify as a trade secret, there’s a couple things that can be done. The first is to specifically identify that trade secret. Is it a customer list? Is it a client list? Is it a piece of software code? Is it a recipe? Those specific kinds of identification is a critical first step.
Once you’ve identified it, you can have a trade secret lawyer help you research your particular state law to determine whether or not there are cases that have held that kind of information to qualify as a trade secret or not. Having that determination will allow you to move forward with either a trade secret misappropriation lawsuit or with a recognition that what you want to be confidential may not necessarily be a trade secret.
So, again, to recap, assuming that you do indeed have something that can qualify as a trade secret, it’s important to look at both the definition of trade secret and the existing case law that’s out there with regard to how they’ve handled that particular kind of information when ultimately determining if you have a protectable trade secret.
You should remember that at the end of the day, trade secret protection requires more than owning the trade secret. You have to take actual steps to continue to protect it, regardless of whether or not ultimately a court of law would deem it to be a protectable trade secret. And that can be simply having it subject to security, be it passwords and logins if it’s computer-based, be it lock and key if it’s in a physical storage area, whatever it might be, but you wouldn’t want to lose your right to trade secret protection because you failed to maintain the secrecy of it. The hardest obstacle to overcome is the original identification and establishment of the trade secret. Don’t jeopardize that trade secret by failure to treat it as secret and keep it private.
So, once again, this has been Attorney Brian Hall; dealing with trade secret protection.
You’ve been listening to Trade Secret Law Radio, where trade secret protection, legal cases, and defenses are always the topic of the day. Whether you are a trade secret attorney, a business looking to protect your trade secrets or have been accused of trade secret theft, we will answer your questions here.
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