Some of your most valuable intellectual property cannot be patented or trademarked. Customer lists, manufacturing processes, pricing strategies, and proprietary formulas often qualify as trade secrets—but only if you protect them properly.
What Qualifies as a Trade Secret?
Not all confidential information rises to the level of a trade secret. To qualify, information must derive economic value from being secret, and the owner must take reasonable steps to keep it secret.
Understanding what qualifies—and what does not—is the first step toward building an effective protection strategy.
Protecting Your Secrets
- Identifying Trade Secrets: Knowing what information in your organization deserves protection
- Employee Agreements: Drafting NDAs and non-compete clauses that actually hold up in court
- Access Controls: Limiting who can access sensitive information and tracking that access
- Response Strategies: What to do when secrets walk out the door with a departing employee
The cost of trade secret theft can be devastating. Competitors gain your hard-won advantages, and legal recovery is often difficult and expensive. Prevention is far more effective than cure.