Trade Secrets
Trade secrets – confidential information unprotected by patent, copyright or trademark laws – are often among a company’s most important assets. But joint venture partners, former employees, customers, vendors and competitors all can put a company's trade secrets at risk. While nondisclosure agreements are essential, they do not make trade secret theft or misuse impossible. Advance assessment of potential threats and consequent harms is essential to reducing exposure to and the risk of trade secret theft. We therefore devise strategies with our clients to make their trade secrets as legally and practically secure as possible.
No amount of planning, however, can ensure the sanctity of one’s trade secrets, making the enforcement of trade secrets rights sometimes necessary. Because the status of a trade secret depends on its not being known, enforcement often requires speedy, decisive action. Our intellectual property litigation lawyers know what to do – they have years of experience in diving in as soon as a trade secret theft is discovered, ensuring that a client’s remaining trade secrets are secured, staunching any further loss of those trade secrets stolen, and preparing for an application for a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction (if merited) and full-scale court action.
On the flip side, we help to ensure that our clients avoid litigation whenever possible over accusations that they have not sufficiently respected or protected the trade secrets of others. We counsel clients about product development and sales in environments where later success might prompt a former (and often desperate) potential business partner to claim that it owns a product design or its key features. And we take the lead in responding to accusations of trade secret theft to keep circumstances from escalating whenever possible.