Trade Secrets Protection: Balancing Employer Rights And Employee Mobility

Introduction

Today's businesses operate in an increasingly competitive market where information is the key to success. One of the most difficult issues in trade secret law is how to protect the competing interests in confidential information of the employers and employees. The aim of the employers is to restrict the disclosure of confidential information, but such a restriction may hamper the employees from marketing their skills to new employers. The inevitable disclosure doctrine states that the former employee will "inevitably disclose" those trade secrets in his or her new position with a competitor employer. Using its equitable injunctive powers, a court may grant an injunction, the result of which is that the employee would no longer have the original employment and would be judicially prevented from accepting the new employment. The original employer obtains the benefit of a non-compete restriction without bargaining for it or paying for it. But this makes