IP Tech Knowledgy

The best and only way to protect trade secrets is to keep them secret.  Trade secrets can offer broad and long-lasting protection of the core aspects of what makes one business more successful than competitors. The owner of a trade secret must make efforts that are reasonable under the circumstances to maintain its secrecy. Different industries and different types of information might require their own nuances to keep information secret, although more protection and safeguards are always better. Require Non-Disclosure Agreements of anyone who may learn of the information.  Create a secure room where anyone must go to see the information.  Mark the information as Confidential.  Impose a confidentiality policy and restrict access to electronic documents.  Require all employees to sign confidentiality agreements.  Install monitoring software on every computer to track employees’ actions.  Avoid putting information on the cloud.  Specifically protect the software by giving only a few employees access.  Instruct employees on how to keep information safe, and store records on encrypted servers to which few employees have access.  Do what it takes to keep the trade secret secret.

Ned T. Himmelrich
410-576-4171 • nhimmelrich@gfrlaw.com