California Trade Secret Attorney
Located in San Jose, California, in the heart of Silicon Valley, each lawyer in our office has experience litigating cases throughout California, including the San Francisco Bay Area, Sacramento, Los Angeles and San Diego. Our litigation practice includes the enforcement of trade secrets in court, where necessary. We may act as plaintiff's counsel or defense counsel. We focus on effective and cost-efficient counsel. We invite you to contact us for an initial free consultation to discuss your particular needs.
"Trade Secrets" Under California Law
"Trade secret" means information, including a formula, pattern, compilation, program, device, method, technique, or process, that: (1) derives independent economic value, actual or potential, from not being generally known to the public or to other persons who can obtain economic value from its disclosure or use; and (2) is the subject of efforts that are reasonable under the circumstances to maintain its secrecy.
Given that broad definition, a trade secret could be almost any type of information. However, it is often business or technical information that receives the most attention, items such as customer lists and data, unannounced product ideas, marketing plans, technical information on product development, corporate strategies, manufacturing information, internal business forecasts, and related information.
Trade Secret Protection In California
Trade secrets are valuable forms of intellectual property. Some have argued, on good grounds, that trade secrets are often the most valuable assets of a company. For example, take the secret formula of Cola-Cola, perhaps the most widely-known and most valuable trade secret in the world.
Therefore, it is important for companies to safeguard such information. This is particularly true in our mobile world, where former employees can very easily email or download information, resign and work for a competitor with whom the information may be shared.
Every company should have technical and legal mechanisms in place to restrict access to trade secret information and to generally protect the secret nature of the information. In this regard, every company should evaluate its company policies on training employees concerning the protection of company information and should evaluate its contracts (such as non-disclosure and confidentiality agreements, assignment agreements, etc.) to make sure that as much as possible is done from a contractual standpoint.
It also goes without saying that, in the event of trade secret misappropriation, every company should have an action plan that includes immediate steps to protect the company from future damage and that plan should include litigation options (i.e., when and how to file litigation for trade secret misappropriation).
Trade Secret Litigation For Trade Secret Misappropriation
A large concern for any company is that a former employee will share the company's trade secrets with a competitor. That is a real concern. And every company, including yours, should have an action plan to address such trade secret misappropriation. That action plan should include, where necessary or advisable, litigation for trade secret misappropriation to obtain injunctive relief (to attempt to stop further damage arising from the misappropriation) and compensatory damages.
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If you are concerned about a potential or actual trade secret misappropriation, and you would like to discuss your options, please do not hesitate to contact us for an initial free consultation.