WHY ARE TRADE SECRETS ESPECIALLY VULNERABLE AT THE BEGINNING
AND END OF AN EMPLOYMENT RELATIONSHIP?
Trade secrets represent information that is not generally known
or accessible to the normal circle of persons who deal with that
kind of information. It is commercially valuable, or it gives a
competitive advantage because it is generally not known. For
something to be protected as trade secret, reasonable security
solutions must be put in place by its holder. Therefore, an
essential characteristic of trade secrets is that they must be
protected from outsiders.
Both at the beginning and at the end of an employment
relationship, trust between the employee and the employer is the
main issue that puts trade secrets in jeopardy. And sometimes, when
the employment relationship is ending, trust has been broken by at
least one of the parties. Without trust, there is a near complete
absence of loyalty between the parties, which may lead to leaks of
an employer's documents,
