How can you develop nondisclosure agreements, and what should be included?
You have to think about what gives your business a competitive advantage over others. In most circumstances, your agreement should cover a number of different areas, including:
- Information about customers or potential customers
- Corporate financial information
- Vendor and service provider information
- Information about current and future products including projected sales figures, project timelines, inventory reports and cost and expense reports
- Marketing strategies and long-term goals
- Technology used by your company
How will you find out a trade secret has been misappropriated?
The three most common ways are (1) a current employee shares a conversation had with the former employee regarding the former employee’s intentions; (2) a competitor that hired your former employee discloses that your former employee offered to share your trade secrets; or (3) a competitor employs your former employee and starts marketing products quicker than fair competition would allow.
What do you do if a trade secret has been misappropriated?
Trade secret status may be lost if you find out secrets have been misappropriated and you take no legal steps to prevent further misappropriation. The most common action is to sue your former employee and former employee’s new company seeking damages for past misappropriation and injunctive relief to prevent further misappropriation. Depending on the circumstances, criminal charges for theft of trade secrets may be warranted. The best approach is to take all steps possible to prevent the misappropriation from happening and, if necessary, aggressively litigate against all who participate in the misappropriation.
Steven R. Press is a shareholder with Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, PC. Reach him at (404) 221-6534, (678) 662-7388 or [email protected].