MightyRecruiterYour company has confidential information you don’t want anyone else getting their hands on. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean that you want to go through with the registration and trademark process to keep your business’ critical information secret. Fortunately, with a little bit of foresight, there are things you can do to keep your business’ trade secrets out of unwanted hands.
Identify Your Trade Secrets
If you don’t know what type of intellectual property your company owns, you’re not going to know what to protect or be able to determine when it’s been stolen. For this reason, your organization should consistently inventory and audit its trade secrets. Simply put, the inventory process should involve figuring out what secrets your company relies on and how this information gives your organization a competitive edge in the marketplace.
Keep in mind that although the exact definition of a trade secret varies, it usually includes information that others do not know and that a company uses reasonable effort to keep confidential. For example, a trade secret can include anything from customer lists, product plans, and formulas to software and methods.
Labelling is also an important part of the identification process. In many cases, a court will be more willing to favor a company if it has physical evidence that the organization took steps to protect its valuable information. Additionally, labelling also helps employees and even those outside of the company determine which information can be disclosed and which is off limits. For example, if a document contains a warning that confidential information is included within it, the employee will immediately know that they cannot disclose its details.
Enact Confidentiality Agreements
Your employees have a big impact on whether or not you’re able to keep your organization’s information confidential. This is because they typically work with what your company considers a trade secret on a daily basis. For this reason, you need to do something to make sure your employees know what they need to do to maintain the confidentiality of your company’s prized information.
When it comes to having your employees protect your company’s information, there’s no right or wrong way to go about doing this. For example, you may want to hold regular trainings to set expectations for confidentiality and the procedures that should be followed, or you might want to include information in your employee handbook that outlines your organization’s confidentiality requirements.
However, one of the best ways to protect your organization’s trade secrets is to have your workers sign nondisclosure agreements as a condition of employment. The NDA that you draft should limit employees from disclosing any information that is beyond reasonable and keep them from releasing these secrets if they ever choose to leave the company.
Limit Disclosure
In addition to your employees, another party that plays a key role in protecting your organization’s trade secrets are various third parties. For example, if you need to share a trade secret with a client, this person would be seen as a competing third party. As with your employees, you should also have these third parties sign an NDA before you decide to share any information with them.
The same process that is followed when employees sign an NDA should be followed similarly when a third party signs one of these agreements. For example, when an NDA is signed by a third party, it should include how a dispute should be settled if any information were to be wrongfully disclosed. These agreements also need to specifically outline which information is not allowed to be disclosed, and a provision requiring the third party to always check with the company before a trade secret is shared should also be included.
Although these steps are basic, they can go a long way when it comes to protecting your organization’s trade secrets, and in the end, even taking minor precautionary measures can make all the difference when it comes to protecting your company’s information.
Legal Disclaimer
The content on our website is only meant to provide general information and is not legal advice. We make our best efforts to make sure the information is accurate, but we cannot guarantee it. Do not rely on the content as legal advice. For assistance with legal problems or for a legal inquiry please contact you attorney.