Tips For Preserving Trade Secrets In The Age Of Virtual Meetings

The COVID-19 pandemic has fundamentally altered the way business is conducted. Face-to-face meetings have moved online via popular videoconferencing platforms, such as Zoom^TM and Cisco Webex^TM. It is a trend that shows no signs of slowing. This massive shift to videoconferencing can present a number of challenges to businesses that own valuable trade secrets. When determining whether to grant trade secret protection, Canadian courts weigh the measures taken by the trade secret owner to protect the secrecy of their information. With insufficient protective measures in place, the trade secret owner risks losing their lawsuits. In an article published last year, we provided trade secret owners with a list of measures that can be put in place to protect the secrecy of their information. In this article, we provide an updated set of measures geared to avoiding the trade secret pitfalls associated with videoconferencing.