Workplace Confidential: Preventing Former Employees From Using Your Trade Secrets

Most trade secret cases involve allegations that a former employee is using a company's confidential information at a new job or their own business. Given that reality, and the workforce disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic, it's vital for companies to safeguard their trade secrets before and after employees leave.

Reasonable protective measures, such as clearly labeling trade secrets, training employees on confidentiality policies, and limiting access to secret information, are important to support future trade secret misappropriation claims. These defensive actions can be applied to all types of trade secrets — including customer lists, pricing information, source code, business strategies, and manufacturing processes — but doing nothing exposes a company to arguments that unprotected information was not truly a trade secret. Another key protective step is having employees with critical knowledge sign non-compete agreements, as a condition of employment